Temp control won't move to full heat

**Fummins** · 10-26-2022, 06:12 PM

I've got a car here for an oil change and tires. When it was dropped off I was asked to look at the heater cause it's not getting hot.
Turns out the temp controls won't turn all the way to hot. It binds up, as if something is stuck in the heaterbox. It moves back to cold just fine but jams up at about the halfway mark. I noticed the fins are punched out of the one vents above the radio. So I'm pretty sure someone stuck a pen or something stupid in the vent and it fell all the way down the heater box and is jamming up the blend door.
I grabbed a spare heater box from my crate of junk and try figuring out htf I can get a look inside the box to see that blend door. I have a crappy princess auto(Canadian harbor freight) inspection camera that's about 10 years old. I managed to snake it down from the top(center dash vent) and find what looks like a pen jammed up above the heater core.
Now I get to figure out how to get it out. I don't have a grabber tool long enough to reach down there. I thought about removing the heater core by uncrimping the tubes and sliding it out? But that wouldn't help cause the blend door is above the core.
I may have to tear the steering column and the entire dash out to fix this thing. Pics and/or video to come.

**Fummins** · 10-26-2022, 08:10 PM

I ended up pulling the dash cover off instead of the entire dash. I can't get anything down in there to reach or feel what's jammed in there. So I uncrimped the heater core and am trying to remove it now. But it hits the power steering module on the side of the steering column. I removed the 2 12mm bolts holding the column to the dash structure. I've got a feeling the entire heater box may be coming out of this thing. Hopefully not!

**Fummins** · 10-26-2022, 08:45 PM

I found pieces of the vent down in the bottom of the heater box. Can't seem to find what I thought was a pen earlier? But I can't fit my hand down there to fish anything out. Will have to find my grabber tools and try again tomorrow. Removing the heater core didn't help at all...
I may be removing the entire heater box if I can't fish the pieces out tomorrow.

I might try hooking a shop vac to a piece of small hose next. Probably shoulda tried that first or second. Oh well...

**Fummins** · 10-27-2022, 02:34 PM

I give up. The heater box is coming out. The one I have on the bench came from a wreck and I broke it taking it out. Taking the dash out of these is a pita. I swore I removed one 7 years ago or so by yanking the steering column and then taking the cover and dash structure out as one piece. This time I was hoping to just remove the cover and snake my grabber tool and pick the pieces out but no luck. The box is gonna have to come apart.

The wiring harness in these cars is a bit of a pita compared so some others that I've worked on. Usually, you unclip a few connectors on the sides of the dash, and a few random ones, then remove a few bolts from each side, one or two near the center floor(maybe some along the windshield) and the entire thing lifts out(after removing steering column first). The wiring in this is a pita. Runs to both kick panels, the antenna wire runs separately across the top of the heater box and up the RH a-pillar to the roof. Some of the harnesses runs down the center to the floor connecting the airbag module and then back to the shifter. I'm hoping to just unhook the rh harness along the a-pillar and swing the dash structure out of the way enought to get the stupid heater box out.