Ventilation Repair - Part 2 - 02/05/2015

After sealing up the diaphragm and letting it cure for several days, I tested it with a vacuum pump. It held without issue, so the time has come to put it all back together and ensure it works...



All repaired and installed. Cranking of the car and running the heater proved it worked. I tested it a few days later again and it still worked. Time to declare victory.



The heater deflector sits right underneath where the dashpot sits on the heater box. It interferes with getting the plenum out, but you can't actually remove it until the plenum comes out. The car was designed to have the entire dash pulled instead of pulling all the individual pieces out...



Plenum is re-installed. Several pieces cracked in the process, fortunately no one wanted any of the perfect pieces from the '72 green car, so I still have them as spares just in case! No breaks where the air flows though, so no real problem.



Dash is re-assembled to the firewall.



It's difficult to see, but you can tell the dash plastic has warped over the years. It pulled away from the 2 screws that hold it to the dash plate and broke the mounting tabs. Not an ideal situation, but the dash is practically perfect other than this and you have to look at it from this angle to see it so I'm going to live with it for now.



Glove box and functional glove box light goes back in.



I removed the cluster to fix several out bulbs and change out the original flasher. It's a Tung-Sol Made in USA from 1972 and doesn't work so well anymore. New $3 replacement works much better.



Dash all completely back together. Radio is unhooked from power source but left to fill the hole and speaker removed. All of the dash lights now work perfectly except the Seat Belt indicator (buzzer still works!). I think the circuit board on the back has a broken trace as the bulb socket is good. Going to hunt down a vacuum gauge cluster with gauges in the future so that's not a crisis for now. The ground situation is much improved, the gauges don't go nuts when you turn on the headlights or step on the brake pedal anymore. Still some movement but nothing horrid.

Not bad. Took a few days to get it all done but now everything in the dash works perfectly as it should. High speed, AC, vent, bi-level, heat, and defrost all go where they should and the temperature door opens and closes as intended and shuts the heater valve off in the coldest position now. I can drive in the rain now. Life is good.

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Last updated February 5th, 2015