TheGoat

More pics...

I'm going to see what kind of vacuum I'm getting while I'm driving it.

Looking through my glove box, see what I have found. Jeez, kinda cool.

Where would I find that?:-\

That's kind of how mine acts. Like this morning, I let it warm up for longer than usual and the defrost worked - until I started driving on the freeway - then it went back to vents only. But when I got off the freeway and stopped at a light - viola! Defrost worked again. So, a vacuum issue, I guess. Glad to know it's not just me having this issue.

Well, I checked the actuator lever and watched it move the door and it all worked without a hitch. So, maybe it is vacuum... I did test the reservoir for vacuum - have good vacuum there. But you might be right - I'll starting checking for cracked lines; but isn't the blend door manually operated (I have a manual selector on the lower left of the dash)?

Pics are there....previous page.

Nope.

Subject: 1985 GL 4WD Wagon. As some of you know, I don't know alot about these cars, yet. So as I was driving it the other day, I noticed that no matter which button I pushed on the selector, heat would only come out of the vents. So, immediately I thought, "Must be a vacuum issue." So I pulled her into my garage, fired up the furnace, left the garage, and came back when the garage was nice and toasty (60 F). So I started checking vacuum, checking for missing or cracked hoses, when my brother noticed the manual selector lever on the far lower left part of the dash (labeled something like, "B/L, Vent, Vent Off") so we thought, "Hey let's check the owner's manual. Maybe there's something in there about using this lever for defrost." Lo and behold, in the owner's manual it says to move that lever to "Vents Closed" (paraphrasing here) for the defrost to work. So the car's all nice and warm (not the engine, it hadn't been statrted, but the car itself from sitting in aforementioned toasty garage) now, so I start it up, push the defrost button and move the selector lever to vents closed. Guess what? Defrost works like a charm! Move the lever to "vents", air out of vents, move lever to bottom most position, air comes out at feet - so everything's working as it should, right? Easy fix! Ahh, but not so fast... Move to the next morning. Car's been outside all night, and here in Iowa parts, our brief affair with global warming has ended and it's been getting pretty cold out. So, I start the car, let her warm up for a few and off I go to work. Windshield's getting frosty on the inside so I hit the defrost buttom and make sure the selector lever is where it's supposed to be and...no defrost. Move the selector lever to all the different positions and heat only comes out of the vents. Really? Yes, really. The whole way driving to work, I'm moving that selector, pushing "Defrost", pushing "Heat", pushing "Bi-Level" and nothing changes - heat out of vents only. BUT, as I pull into a spot in my parking garage, the defrost miraculously fires up (after all the button pushing and lever moving, I'd left the lever in the vents closed position and the defrost button selected)! WTF? This morning, same exact thing happened - no defrost until parking garage. And this morning, sitting in the parking garage with the car running, I test the different lever postitions and differnt button selections and all works as it should - switches from defrost to vents to heat, just like it should. I know that at idle I'm probably drawing the most vacuum, so one could say that in the parking garage at idle is giving me just enough vacuum to make everything work properly, but after everything starts working it stays working, while normal driving, until the car cools down. So...it seems that ambient temperature is causing blend door failure...but why?

I took these in the midst of changing the water pump.

Some pics... [/img][/img]

You're right - lots of rust and the frame rails are in pretty sad shape. I didn't know anything about these cars before I bought it, just thought it would make a good winter car - and it's handled the snow pretty good today. But I know more about my car now thanks to you guys and I do appreciate it. I guess if I got screwed, I'll just take it as a lesson learned. I did talk him down quite a bit though (not down to $400, unfortunately).

Thanks for the advice! I've already replaced the PCV and I'll look into an oil catch can.

Wow, well, thanks for making me feel so good about my purchase. Oh well, it runs good, 4WD works. I like it. Make a good winter car.

Do you know something about this car I should know?

I did not. Thank god.

Hello, picked up an '85 GL 4WD Wagon a couple weeks ago. It's slow, it's rusty, it's awesome! Already had the pleasure of replacing the water pump, and fixing the fogs, and trying to figure out why my damn air cleaner is full of oil!