Miscellaneous Musings

[Alex Kowalski]

Behind and to the right of the glove box, bolted to the firewall with a 10mm
nut and attached with a wiring harness that receives signals from the head
unit in the dashboard, a few channels of which are multiplexed and
impossible to decipher for anyone except the people who designed it at Delco
(!).  There are five multicolored vacuum tubes attached to it through a
manifold that's held in place with a teeny, tiny nut in the very center of
the assembly, and the bowden cable going to the temperature-regulating flaps
in the A/C assembly is also attached to it.

If you look carefully behind the glove compartment when it's open (actually
look past the glove box) and you can see it.  Inside that box are a set
of vacuum solenoids that regulate all of the mechanical devices in the
climate control system that rely on vacuum:  the diaphragms that control
which vents the air comes out of, the heater valve in the engine compartment
that lets engine coolant into the heater core, and the diaphragm that
controls the recirculation/fresh-air doors.  The line that supplies the
vacuum to the programmer is the black one, which is connected to a hard
plastic vacuum line that you'll find in the middle of the dashboard just
above the climate control unit itself, once you get the passenger-side panel
off.  The red line connects to the heater-control valve, all the rest are
described in the Bentley.

It's about 6"x6" and is held in place by the bolt/nut on the lower left-hand
corner.  Then you slide it to the left out of the brackets built into the
dashboard/firewall to remove it.  Don't lose the rubber grommets!!

And yes, the back of the unit is supposed to be covered by a cheezy piece of
cardboard held on by a couple of pieces of electrical tape, apparently.

SJM has a picture of it here:

http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/trouble_shooting/ac.html#servo

What goes bad on these units are the cheezy vacuum solenoids.  I'm thinking
of taking a few of them out of one of my spare units and seeing if there is
a modern replacement.  I've tried looking up the part numbers embossed into
them with no luck.  Maybe someone really good with electrics like Avi Meron
has a better answer.

Cheers,
Alex Kowalski
'87 5KCSTQ
'86 5KCSTQ




On 5/21/06, John S. Lagnese <jlagnese at massed.net> wrote:
>
> What or where is the AC programmer?
> John
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Alex Kowalski" <hypereutectic1 at gmail.com>
> To: "Kneale Brownson" <kneale at coslink.net>
> Cc: <quattro at audifans.com>
> Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 6:35 PM
> Subject: Miscellaneous Musings
>
>
> > BTW just in the "miscellaneous musings" file:
> >
> > It seems to me that as these cars get older, no matter how well they're
> > running, you need to do a full, thorough inspection and fixer-up once a
> > year.  All the work I've done so far could have been handled in a
> weekend
> > if
> > I had planned that in advance.  For example, while I was reinstalling
> the
> > plastic plenum shroud, I had a chance to take a good look at the vacuum
> > and
> > breather hoses.  Everything was fine, no splits, just a little bit of
> oil
> > mistiness on one, however, I did find two loose hose clamps:  one in the
> > large line that goes directly into the airbox assembly.
> >
> > It just POURED rain where I live and I went back out to check my plenum
> > cover and recirc door repairs:  tight as a drum.  And I ran the car
> during
> > the storm and the climate control system is now working perfectly,
> pumping
> > out nice, relatively dry air through the proper vents at the right time.
> > A
> > few months ago I swapped the A/C programmer with one from Force5 and
> it's
> > good to know that this one is still working well.
> >
> > I would advise anyone who owns one of these cars of this vintage to pick
> > up
> > a spare A/C programmer the next chance they get.  The problem is that
> the
> > vacuum solenoids go south, but if you have two or three, as I do, you
> can
> > swap it relatively easily and/or cobble together a good one using the
> > parts
> > from others.  I think we're in the phase of these car's lives where
> saving
> > good spares is essential to their use over the next ten years, and every
> > year you need to do a thorough once-over.
> >
> > Alex Kowalski
> > '87 5KCSTQ
> > '86 5KCSTQ
> >
> >
> > On 5/21/06, Alex Kowalski <hypereutectic1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>  I was thinking of that but had the epoxy handy.  It seems sturdy at
> this
> >> point, but if it fails again that's going to be the next step.  The
> >> cross-piece where the spring connects up snaps almost exactly in the
> >> middle
> >> and then the spring just sneaks its way between the two halves.  Thanks
> >> for
> >> the suggestion about the airbox.  That clip at the back is almost
> >> impossible
> >> to see, much less open and close, unless you are PlasticMan.
> >>
> >> Alex Kowalski
> >> '87 5KCSTQ
> >> '86 5KCSTQ
> >>
> >> PS The archives were slow today for reasons I don't understand, but
> after
> >> a half hour of getting back partial pages, I gave up.
> >>
> >>  On 5/21/06, Kneale Brownson <kneale at coslink.net> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > If you'd been able to access the archives more easily, you'd have run
> >> > across postings recommending installing a metal bridge over the
> >> > crosspiece
> >> > so the spring can't cut through it again.  I folded a little piece of
> >> > tin
> >> > and poked a hole through both layers just below the plastic bar to
> hook
> >> > the
> >> > spring through when I did my 87.
> >> >
> >> > The big issue to replacing the air filter is getting the spring clips
> >> > on
> >> >
> >> > the airbox open.  I took the heavy hook off a wooden pants hanger to
> >> > use
> >> > as
> >> > a clip tool.  A screwdriver with the end heated/bent into a hook
> would
> >> > work
> >> > too.
> >> >
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > quattro mailing list
> > quattro at audifans.com
> > http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro
> > ---
> > Watch this space for ads :)
> >
>
>