Cascade Crew

Spikeophant · Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 12:48 pm Post subject: Heater vaccuum controls

My vacuum line came unhooked from my heater controls again today, and while plugging it back in it felt a little odd, I investigated, and the little plastic tube down in there is busted. Any suggestions on a good way to fix it? Maybe a little rubber tube? Anyone had to fix this piece, or do you guys just replace them if it breaks?

If anyone is confused as to what part I'm talking about, it's the cylindrical piece on the drivers side, upper firewall, taht has vacuum lines for heater controls.

aaron_sK · Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 5:38 pm Post subject:

The vacuum line for the heater controls is on the passenger side going into the wiring harness by itself. Are you looking at the cruise control setup? Or maybe the windshield washer?

Spikeophant · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 7:11 am Post subject:

Nah, I'll take a pic really quick, it's definately the heater controls, since my heater is stuck on defrost with it unplugged, and works great plugged in. Now, with it slightly broken, it's stuck on defrost again, fortunately it's pretty warm out, and not supposed to rain today, so I'm going to attempt a fix. No cruise on the car, washer box is pulled, it was cracked bad, the line is still there, and it's def. not that.

On a side note, in this months Muscle Car Review they have an article on repairing ABS plastics. I'm going to fix my cracked dash with their technique and post results. Hopefully this goes well, I have some old grilles I could fix and sell for good money at this months swap meet.

Spikeophant · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 7:24 am Post subject:

Here's some pics. The line does go into the harness on the pass. side, but it also goes into a cylindrical thing on the drivers side. I should really know what this is called, but i'm drawing a blank.

Spikeophant · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 1:05 pm Post subject:

So, I got a little piece of vacuum tubing and attempted to just splice the line into the busted off plastic tube, but there's not enough of the tube left in there to put the vacuum line on. I think I'm going to have to replace it, anyone got one of those parts?

townaj · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:09 pm Post subject:

Mine did the same exact thing to me the other day. I thought that was a vacuum reservoir for the wipers though... Shrug

Spikeophant · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:14 pm Post subject:

Definately controls the heater stuff in my car, since everytime it's come unplugged my heater gets stuck on defrost. I picked up some abs solvent cement, gonna try to fix it tonight, if it comes off hte car easily, I also need to put on an alternator and swap our my turn signal switch, we'll see how far I get.

iansane · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:33 pm Post subject:

Does yours have the orb of power up in the front bumper? I'm guessing that's a vacuum reservoir? The later cars I think get the spherical 'orb of power' reservoir under the bumper cover. you could always pick one of those up from a yard. It would hide it while fixing your issue. Very Happy

townaj · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:12 pm Post subject:

Hmm...on mine i just connected the line from the manifold to the one that came out of the reservoir. Probly not a good idea though lol.

aaron_sK · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 5:03 pm Post subject:

@ Ian, you are correct. I misinformed him. I always thought that '85 was the changeover year for that, but it must have been '87 as my IROC had an orb.

@ townaj, your HVAC wont work, but that will prevent a vacuum leak for now. You need a check valve and a T for it all to work properly.

@ Spike, you don't have to be specific when buying a vacuum can. I ran one out of a Chevy Astro on my Ford truck, and it worked great. Hell, you can even buy new ones off of Summit. The only thing to make sure of is that the can doesn't have a check valve built in (my Ford did) in that case you have to do a little surgery to turn the built-in valve into an inline one. Very Happy

Spikeophant · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:00 am Post subject:

@aaron Thanks, I'll get it off and hit up the junkyard, see what they say. I got distracted after work and didn't do anything to the car yesterday, tonight though, cleared my schedule, gonna get the alt swapped, and hopefully see about fixing this.

Xophertony · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:17 am Post subject:

the one in my GTA broke when i pulled the dash to do the heater core. nothing has worked right since.

townaj · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:41 pm Post subject:

My HVAC doesn't work anyway lol. I took out the A/C and the blower motor hasn't worked for a while. I think I took out too much wiring Embarassed

. I went a little psycho on it lol.

aaron_sK · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 5:14 pm Post subject:

It's really very simple to wire up a non-AC system. Basically three wires and a ground. Those three go to the resistor. Power comes out of the harness (red wire, I think). Ground has a capacitor or something inline and goes to the box on non-AC, and a bracket on AC setup.

townaj · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 4:18 pm Post subject:

Ok hopefully this weekend I can take a look. I took some wires out of the back of the controls and I guess I pulled the wrong one.

RSFreak · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 5:48 pm Post subject:

The orb of power is part of the cruise control, right?

Al Hasse · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 5:58 pm Post subject:

aaron_sK · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 8:01 pm Post subject:

Blower will go to defrost at WOT without it. Very Happy