Weird A/C behavior

[Doyt W. Echelberger]

OK, I spent some mopre time this morning in the pretzel position under the
dash, examining the view through the inner (lower?) trap door behind the
glove box.  There isn't any "cage" around the vacuum solenoid.There was a
cage there at one time because I remember it. The solenoid is attached to
the upper outer trap door and is loose, wobbly, and apparently just hanging
there. A rubber (plastic?) vacuum hose attaches to the loose end of the
solenoid, and I don't mean the end that is attached to the upper outer trap
door.

I can't see anything for this solenoid to do except dangle.

That would be a useless way to have engineered it, so something must be
missing, like a way to attach it to something solid.

The diagram at Scott's web site doesn't show any outer end attachment of
the solenoid, as far as I can see.

On my car, I  see 2 lever arms, one on each side, connecting the inner trap
door to the outer trap door.   I also see a central pair of supports that
are not part of either door, but appear to be attached to the body of the
car. The solenoid dangles above this support, and it's vacuum hose goes to
the solenoid through a space between the two sides of the support.

OK, I think I understand. The solenoid WAS at one time fixed to the central
support. That way, the lever arm of the solenoid would open and close the
outer door. And since the inner and outer doors are connected by a spring,
they could act on each other.

My next experiment will be to devise a bracket to hold the solenoid to the
central support fixture.  I am going on a 300 mile trip right now, and
can't do that until I return.

More later.  This is moving along, somewhere, somehow.

Keep in touch.

Doyt Echelberger





 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...
At 07:16 AM 8/16/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>When I took a few hours to clean out the leaves (by opening the under-dash
>hinged door behind the glove box) I found the hose to the vacuum solenoid
>disconnected and dangling, and the solenoid was loose in it's plastic
>support cage. I used epoxy to attach the solenoid to it's cage and to hold
>the hose to the solenoid. This fix didn't change anything in the way it
>worked, so I'm going to go back under with a flashlight and see if I have
>any new insights while upside down, curled up like a pretzel. And I'll try
>the "Econ" and letting up on the throttle trick. Be assured, you will all
>hear of any success.
>
>Let's stay with this until we get it working right.  Thankfully, the
>default position does cool the cabin fairly well on my car, most of the time.
>
>Doyt Echelberger
>87 5ktq in hot and humid Ohio