Fixed my heater / AC control.

[Air345Fly]

The dash control unit for the heater and air conditioner was loose.
The fan control was not held at all and could be pushed through the
panel. The buttons were not solid as well, particularly the right most
buttons. It bothered me, I like everything to work properly.

It was clear that the switch had broken away from it's mounting.
It looked like this;



You will have to pull the dash instrument panel away from the dash
as far as possible to get at the control. Putting the shift lever in
1 position (lowest position) worked best for me.

The plastic control is held in by two screws on either side. If you
remove the nuts then the control can be removed from the dash
panel. The bolts themselves are permanently attached to the dash
panel so you don't have to worry about loosing them.


I bought a new plastic control housing from eBay. It was called:
"Control Housing A/C and heater Dodge Van 1997 Mopar 5011344AA"

It is a perfect match. Here it is assembled with the parts from the
old broken one. The button assembly unscrews from the housing
and I left it fully attached in the dash.



New on on the left, broken one on the right.

The temperature control lever was stiff. This was due to binding in the
cable that attaches the control lever to the heater water valve. I used
the old motorcycle trick to lubricate the cable.

Take a plastic sandwich bag and poke the cable through the bottom
of the bag. Use a rubber band to hold the bag tightly against the
cable's plastic sheathing. Wind the rubber band around the bag
many times to form a tight seal. Fill the plastic bag with oil enough
that the oil level is above the cable sheathing. Hold it up as high
as you can and leave it for a few hours. I taped the bag to the
dash with duck tape and left it overnight. I put some rags under
the cable to catch any oil that might leak. I could see that the oil
and come all the way through and was on the water valve.

I reassembled everything and it was good as new!



If people don't want to hear about all this minutiae tell me and I
will stop.

Pete.

[Keyair]

Absolutely!

Congrats and nice work!!!

[mayco]

Awesome, nice work!

[ForexTreeGuy]

Originally Posted by Air345Fly

The dash control unit for the heater and air conditioner was loose.
The fan control was not held at all and could be pushed through the
panel. The buttons were not solid as well, particularly the right most
buttons. It bothered me, I like everything to work properly.

It was clear that the switch had broken away from it's mounting.
It looked like this;

Attachment 299346

You will have to pull the dash instrument panel away from the dash
as far as possible to get at the control. Putting the shift lever in
1 position (lowest position) worked best for me.

The plastic control is held in by two screws on either side. If you
remove the nuts then the control can be removed from the dash
panel. The bolts themselves are permanently attached to the dash
panel so you don't have to worry about loosing them.


I bought a new plastic control housing from eBay. It was called:
"Control Housing A/C and heater Dodge Van 1997 Mopar 5011344AA"

It is a perfect match. Here it is assembled with the parts from the
old broken one. The button assembly unscrews from the housing
and I left it fully attached in the dash.

Attachment 299347

New on on the left, broken one on the right.

The temperature control lever was stiff. This was due to binding in the
cable that attaches the control lever to the heater water valve. I used
the old motorcycle trick to lubricate the cable.

Take a plastic sandwich bag and poke the cable through the bottom
of the bag. Use a rubber band to hold the bag tightly against the
cable's plastic sheathing. Wind the rubber band around the bag
many times to form a tight seal. Fill the plastic bag with oil enough
that the oil level is above the cable sheathing. Hold it up as high
as you can and leave it for a few hours. I taped the bag to the
dash with duck tape and left it overnight. I put some rags under
the cable to catch any oil that might leak. I could see that the oil
and come all the way through and was on the water valve.

I reassembled everything and it was good as new!

Attachment 299348

If people don't want to hear about all this minutiae tell me and I
will stop.

Pete.

This fantastic..... gold for us newbies to the 345's forever a fix-it club. One more thing to check off the list! thank you for the detail.

[dspaw]

Nice Job. My heater control is held on the dash with a zip tie! Yes, thats right, a zip tie through the dash.

[Kitester]

Does anyone know the part number or make, model or year of the cable. I looked for the 1994 dodge van …no joy. Mine is too far gone to rehab. Looking for a new one,

[Kitester]

Originally Posted by Kitester

Does anyone know the part number or make, model or year of the cable. I looked for the 1994 dodge van …no joy. Mine is too far gone to rehab. Looking for a new one,

Update:went another way…I went to O’Rielly’s auto parts. I bought an Edelbrock cable and a pack of trunnions. The cable is pax. 58 inches long. I took thr polished knob off and ground the crimped on end off the cable wire so both ends were just the plain wire. I used a heat gun to remove the special plastic cable housing end locator. Mine was red and has a tee shape that slips into the back of the heater control to keep the housing in place. I used hot glue to hold it in place on the housing but the fit was very tight anyway. Then I removed the heater control arm by slipping the retaining washer off. I drilled the arm to accept a screw from one of the trunnion sizes and modified the trunnion to fit and turn freely. A set screw on the other end of the trunnion clamps the wire cable end in place. The other end of the wire cable that goes to the heater valve was heated and curled around a screwdriver shaft of the same size as the valve attachment post. It all seems to work and the relocated heater control is working with very little friction. Time will tell.