'83 A/C vs fresh air

[rdh@sli.com (Robert D. Houk)]

Well, at least part of my mystery (why vacuum servo has "locked" the
fresh air flap closed) is, well, not solved, but at least understood.

The old (i.e., '83) manual heat/AC three-lever control head does in
fact have a vacuum switch embedded in it. The whole unit, viewed from
the front:

  Front, top left: Air lever for footwell control
            right: Air lever for windshield control
           bottom: AC / "off" / Heat temp control

  Inside, lower left side: A/C microswitch, engaged by temp ctl to AC
			   (two connections, three wires)
          upper left rear: A/C thermostat/clutch/gizmo (two wires plus
			   thermostatic piping connection to A/C coils)
         lower right rear: Vacuum switch with two nipples

  In addition, three wire/cable actuators, two on right and one on the
  left (I think I got that right; cable on right goes to hot water valve
  in engine compartment, the other two to control flaps on the air/vent
  main assembly -- I was ***VERY*** careful not to disturb the cables
  since I ***REALLY*** didn't want to take the control head apart to fix
  what was still working before I took it apart...).

By carefully (tortuously) insinuating a small mirror through the maze
of cables, vacuum lines, wires (did I mention the stereo I just put in?),
and whatnot, I can see that what I thought was just a random protru-
berence is in fact one of the nipples, right next to it is a small hole
with rough edges where some ****er broke the other nipple off. Rather
than "fix" the problem, some previous bozon just hooked the two vacuum
lines together (permanently "wiring" the servo "on", recirculation mode
no fresh air).

I knew there was a reason why I don't like to buy used cars from people
I don't know and trust.

Time for an electric vacuum switch...wonder where I'll find one of
those guys? Something must exist that I can finagle into the system...

$igh.

					-RDH