file.newsgroup.cars.103413 Maven / Gradle / Ivy
From: [email protected] (Daniel L. Lovall)
Subject: Buick heater controls
I have a '71 Buick Skylark with 148K on it. I bought it in California, and if
it'll let me, I'd like to keep it for another year. The only problem is these
Indiana winters--my heater controls don't work.
The car has vacuum operated control switches for the vents. Right now it is
stuck in the "vent" mode. It will blow warm air, but I can't switch the air
flow to either the floor (I can live without this) or the defrost (I can't
live without this). I probably could just jam the air deflector to the
defrost position, but this blows a lot of air in my face and is, well,
kind of like putting a vacuum cleaner in reverse.
I have taken parts of the dash off and looked at the vacuum system and I think
the problem (or part of it) is with the two diaphragms which control up/down
and outside/inside air flow. THe diaphragm which controls outside(vent)/in-
side(no vent) air is cracked most of the way around, and the other one is
probably damaged too, considering the advanced age of the car.
Two questions:
1) Is there anything I should be aware of about this (other than
the fact that I should move from Indiana) ?
2) In the event that replacement diaphragms aren't available, is there
a way to "fix" this?
THanks for any advice/info
selah,
Dan
[email protected]