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heater lever linkage inside dash broke inside


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Yup, I built the PK lifted '84 wagon for deer and elk hunting, and right in the middle of her first deer season, the hot/cold lever took a crap, jammed up and feels like something broke back inside the dash. She blows plenty of icy air, but when I slide the lever up to hot it binds and feels way different from when it worked last week. Just what I need here in Central Oregon at 7000 ft. elevation with a cold front settled in to stay like it has now. We're freezing to death here.

 

I don't have a clue how to get inside to see what happened. I'm so pissed. Got two parts cars to scavange parts from, but sure hope I don't have to pull the whole dash to fix this, no time.

 

How do get back inside behind the hot/ cold lever to find the problem?

 

thanks guys,

 

Pyro

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I was just fixing my heater controls this last weekend. You have to take off that large trim section that surrounds the cluster and holds a few of the heater vents.

 

If the heater linkage is jammed, it's probably that the plastic frame of that component has broken. Of the 5 Soobs I've owned, 4 of them have had the same problem, to a similar degree.

 

To fix it, you might need to bust out some epoxy and fiberglass tape to reinforce the area around the break. Also, while you're there, it would be a good time to lubricate the control line to the heat/cold setting.

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Same thing happened to me. You can reach up from underneath and manually open the heater control valve, unless the heater control valve is broke, of course. That's unlikely, though. Most likely it's just sticky to the point at which the dash control knob won't open and close it. Once you get the valve open, just leave it like that and you'll have heat all winter. I went for a long time like that - reaching up underneath the dash and closing the valve in the spring, and opening it again in the fall.

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I was wrong. Turns out the rod that goes across the fire wall down by the gas pedal has come off the gear or whatever it is which is at the end of the (cable?) that the hot/cold lever on the dash works. I've yet to get proper lighting down there and stand on my head to see what or why it's disconnected. I just pushed/pulled the rod by hand till the defrost blew hot air, then left it. Then tried to change to heat or bi-level, but for some reason neither of those will work, the rod wont stay put, it slide back. But at least we can now have defrost which heats the car enough. I'll look into it further after the hunt. I doubt that anybody has a picture of what's at the end of the cable? Anyway, thanks for the help guys.

 

 

 

Pyro

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