The Dark Wob

My task if i choose to except?
Bit far in now
Pull out HVAC box today and try to figure out how to operate it without vacuum?

Here's a photo my mate took of his out and apart,The Evaporator is missing from the photo as will mine also be



Now this is the beast in diagram form,bear in mind with AC fitted for some functions have to have multiple blend doors operate at the same time which without AC that's not needed you just open up whichever blend door is needed at that time.

This diagram is looking at the box in the photo as the top half of the box in the top right of the photo
the bottom half of the box in the bottom left is turned around 360% if that makes sense?



And here is the funhouse that is the existing vacuum hose mess just to open a few bloody doors that could be cable operated!



I am not the only one that thought the Ford solution was like Billy Smarts Flying Circus as even Hodec engineering who converted these to RHD back in the day threw away the Vacuum malarkey and had two extra boden cables under the dash to operate the extra doors the AC had

as shown here in my mates RHD car as the pull control just above hood release
There was one each side of dash and fords non AC cars had them anyhow the vacuum mess was for user ease but 45 years later is a fecking nightmare of multiple vacuum leaks



Will add more one the fecking Behemoth is out from under the dash!

Stay Tooned!

Looks fun*

Hooli wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:44 amLooks fun*

Quite!

In a masochistic way!



The one thing I haven't figure out yet is how to control the under hood heater valve?

That's vacuum too

I don't want an extra lever and cable so banking on the temp lever having two cables one pulling open the valve when it reaches a certain point

First things first though i want to get the box out of the car,there's two add of sections one is the door to allow fresh air from the cowl vents that will be operated from an extra under dash cable on the passengers side its two position either open or closed so that's simple enough and another extra section is the windscreen defroster/face vents to switch between them will also be operated by an under dash on the drivers side

The temp blend door uses the same cable on non AC controls ive just got to make the function door cable on non AC controls work the previously vacuum controlled door

with me so far?

As far as the under bonnet valve goes, you'd probably get away with removing it or locking it open. Most modern HAVC sysetms always run the heater matrix hot & rely on the flaps etc to keep the heat away from the airflow when not needed.

Hooli wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2020 10:17 am As far as the under bonnet valve goes, you'd probably get away with removing it or locking it open. Most modern HAVC sysetms always run the heater matrix hot & rely on the flaps etc to keep the heat away from the airflow when not needed.

Not sure it would work on this the quality of Ford workmanship deems that most airflow leaks out before it reaches the vents
Would fry me on a hot day
Still not got the box out
Stripped all the vents and outlets off it and Haynes say it should just pull out now from underneath the dash
Does it Bollox!
Guess the dash is coming out again

Day Two (yestterday) of heater box removal

And so it continues!
Last time the dash was out it was to plastic weld repair it!
I now have a much better replacement dash but now the prize is getting the heater box out!
Last time I removed the dash loom from the dash and left if in the car and it was a nightmare to fit back around the Dash

This time is l have since found out you can disconnect the dash loom from the rest of the loom and pull the dash with it attached so I’m doing that this time




Then find I have to remove the longest bolt in the world in order the disconnect from loom with another hand spanner because my ratchet and socket won’t fit between firewall and the back of one of the heads!
Thank you very much Ford!



All just to get this sodding heater box out!



While the dash is out I plan to remove the interior firewall sound deadening and sand and paint it with red oxide zinc and then oil based paint before replacing the sound deadening with a newer alternative
What a job!

Safety first disconnect battery,



Drop Column,Can’t find right imperial socket to take dash out so it’s snail pace hand spanner



Several hours later I woke up



So that's all the dash loom plugs disconnected and dash bolts out so tomorrow (which is today now) I can lift that out and get the prize

Or Can I?

So three days sweat tears and it drew blood
Yesterday I went around freeing off all the dash loom plugs after 45 years
Or so I thought?
This morning I found another three plugs I missed

And one particularly vicious one which the securing tab flew off and in bedded itself in my finger







Finally pulled the dash along with its loom and several cracked plugs
Ford plastics and the west coast sun don’t mix





But eventually I have the prize!



At last it can be pulled free



There was some minimal coolant leakage from the heater core but can live with that



Best thing is the legroom now





I can also now reach into the engine bay from the passenger compartment and check my ATF level without getting out of the car



Not doing any more today but the major stuff is now done
Next it’s prepare treat and paint the internal firewall

Stripping my interior firewall sound deadening out and I find this
Appears to be two cracks in the bulkhead in the Same area.
This pic is from passenger side


This is from drivers side looks much worse from this angle



The smallest crack appears to have brass braze around it like it happened at the factory and they tried to cover it up?
Second crack no attempt.
This was behind the firewall deadening so could of happened last week last month last year who knows?
Has anybody seen this before?
Can’t work out where it is but if I didn’t know better I’d say a bellhousing bolt was the culprit as it seems to be pushed out near the larger crack

Didn't you say it'd be drag raced in the past? I know on Astras & the like cracked bulkheads where common from the extra strains they got subjected too when used like that. I'd assume it's common to all monocoque cars that the bulkhead takes a lot of the loads.

Hooli wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 3:43 pm Didn't you say it'd be drag raced in the past? I know on Astras & the like cracked bulkheads where common from the extra strains they got subjected too when used like that. I'd assume it's common to all monocoque cars that the bulkhead takes a lot of the loads.

Yes it was,it was never really fully race prepped but out there they just drag anything. I think that's why practically noting worked on it as it was just trailered to the strip each weekend.
some may say i saved the ungrateful shite