HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Topic: HVAC blend door cable lubrication? (Read 3106 times) previous topic - next topic

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

April 15, 2010, 01:21:48 AM

Hey all, I have been messing with the dashboard in my 88 XR7 for a looooong time now. I took it out again to address a few problems, namely the cable on the HVAC that blends hot/cold air.

The cable has a LOT of resistance in it. But there is no binding or anything visually wrong with it. What can I use to lubricate this cable? It's basically a rubber hose with a metal cable in it.

Better fix it now before the dash comes back together!

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Reply #1 – April 15, 2010, 09:29:48 AM

If it were me, I'd drip some WD-40 or general lubricating oil down one end, let gravity pull it, and then when you get the dash back together, move the temp slider back and forth. Hopefully that makes the cable less resistant. The older slide cables had a tendency to have a lot of resistance by nature; the rotary cables are much freer to move.

By contrast, I must have put an ever-so-slight kink in the Taurus/Sable rotary cable when I installed it many moons ago in the convertible. It has much more resistance than even a typical slider cable. Weasle's same rotary cable works smooth as butter...hence the reason I knew my cable was kinked. Oops. :(

Anyway, the point is, it's REALLY easy to kink up the cable if not careful. I'm not sure if our stock cables are still available new...probably not, this is Ford we're talking about.

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Reply #2 – April 15, 2010, 10:16:06 AM

Quote from: EricCoolCats;318367

By contrast, I must have put an ever-so-slight kink in the Taurus/Sable rotary cable when I installed it many moons ago in the convertible. It has much more resistance than even a typical slider cable. Weasle's same rotary cable works smooth as butter...hence the reason I knew my cable was kinked. Oops. :(

I wonder if Ill be guessing right here or not. Naturally I or anyone else on this board would look at your vert, see the engine bay and everything and think "wow what a perfect flawless car". I bet that bugs the HELL out of ya though, right?

Least I know that's how it would be for me. Someone off the street can tell me my car is really clean and what do I do? "Oh but this and that and this and yea see that right there that looks like and I broke that by accident" And then the better off everything is as a whole, the more I blow out of proportion the little imperfections!!

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Reply #3 – April 15, 2010, 10:28:55 AM

Good information, Eric. With my luck, I kinked it. I'll check. WD-40 or something like that is a great idea too.

Thanks. :)

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Reply #4 – April 15, 2010, 11:03:08 AM

Quote from: ZondaC12

I wonder if Ill be guessing right here or not. Naturally I or anyone else on this board would look at your vert, see the engine bay and everything and think "wow what a perfect flawless car". I bet that bugs the HELL out of ya though, right? Least I know that's how it would be for me. Someone off the street can tell me my car is really clean and what do I do? "Oh but this and that and this and yea see that right there that looks like and I broke that by accident" And then the better off everything is as a whole, the more I blow out of proportion the little imperfections!!

LOL Well, how can I put this...I really hate to put a damper on anyone's thoughts but if it's a "perfect" Cougar that you want, a convertible isn't the way to go. There are way too many unique issues to the car. For instance, without significant bodywork, there is no way for the fenders and doors to line up correctly. The removal of the door frames makes the door metal wavy and go all over the place. The windows don't line up in the back and probably never can. And those are just the starters. My car has plenty of issues, just like everyone else, it's just that I dazzle with chrome to hide them LOL.

So yes...things like that can be annoying. I can handle replacing a cable though, that's an easy fix for once.

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Reply #5 – April 15, 2010, 11:42:24 AM

I probably over-dramatized it but to me it looks like a "done" car, obviously nothing is ever done but its showable, etc. That's interesting though, about the body issues. Probably a byproduct of the fact that it's an "aftermarket" setup, not done by Ford as it went down the assembly line?

More on-topic...when was this cable change made? From the slide to rotary cable? The cat has EATC but my '87 crown vic has the manual controls. Just wondering.

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Reply #6 – April 15, 2010, 03:12:11 PM

Sprayed a fair bit of silicone lubricant in there...problems solved. For now, who know's what's gonna happen when I reinstall the dash.

Must. Remain. Positive. :)

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Reply #7 – April 16, 2010, 12:22:12 AM

EATC FTW!.....................until it breaks. I have a spare head unit just in case;)

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Reply #8 – April 16, 2010, 11:33:24 PM

Quote from: ZondaC12;318386

More on-topic...when was this cable change made? From the slide to rotary cable? The cat has EATC but my '87 crown vic has the manual controls. Just wondering.

There were never rotary panels in any of our Fox Birds or Cats. They were all sliders using a conventional cable unless you had one optioned with electronic HVAC controls. It was starting with the first Taurus that rotary panels were installed on Fords and they used a single conventional cable. Later, those cables in the Taurus went away for electronic s with electric actuators to move the blend doors. Tbirds and Cougars did not get rotary s until the dashes were redesigned with dual airbags for 1994. All those cars used electronic actuators instead of cables.

Rotary panels were adapted to many more Ford cars starting in the 1990's and depending on the model they were either cable activated or electrically activated.

Now I did the rotary HVAC panel in my Tbird and sourced it from an early 1990's Taurus. It still uses the same type cable as the slide cables, but with a different end at the side. When you turn the rotary on the Taurus panel, there is a toothed horizontal slide that pulls the cable back and forth. I used my original Tbird cable and adapted the end at the rotary panel to hold itself in place by using a hose clamp. I guess a picture would be more explanatory to see how I did it.

When I switched over to the 95 Mustang dash, those cars used an unusual overly complicated dual cable and pulley setup with a different configiration for the hot/cold rotary mechanism. The SN95 Mustang cable and rotary panel as stock from that car is just not compatable with the Fox heater boxes as there is no way to attach the pulley system that installs at the blend door lever.

With the Mustang dash, I had to switch to the Mustang rotary panel because the Taurus rotary panel was too tall fit fit behind the dash trimplate. I was able to take the slide mechanism behind the Taurus rotary panel and install it in the back of the Mustang rotary panel in place of it's original dual pulley and cable one and it works perfectly. The only modification was the alignment of one of the screws where one of the mounting tabs attach to the back of the panel, so I just used a self tapping trim screw and ran it into the back of the plastic rotary panel housing using the mounting tab hole on the Taurus rotary slide. That saved the day for me because I thought I was going to have issues of not being able to make a rotary panel work at all unless I used an SN95 Mustang heater box.

Using any rotary panel, you will not have full range of rotary rotation because of the shorter range the blend door lever travels on Fox body heater boxes. I just adjusted it so that the up position is 50/50 hot/cold mix, 9 o'clock position is cold and 3 o'clock position is hot instead of the panel's original 7 and 5 o'clock position extremes.

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Reply #9 – April 16, 2010, 11:54:01 PM

As far as the manual cables go, do like others have said and just spray WD-40 into one end of the cable help up and let it wick down into the other end. Try not to bend the cable as it will kink and become irregular causing unwanted friction during movement inside the cable sleeve.

HVAC blend door cable lubrication?

Reply #10 – April 17, 2010, 08:42:34 AM

Ohhhhh thats what "rotary" means. The big black plastic dial contols you turn. Yea thats a much newer thing. I knew that! :hick: I was thinking this rotary vs slide stuff was having to do with the mechanicals behind the dash. Learn something new every day!!