I've reconditioned the heater box and bought one of the kits to replace the old foam and seals. This was an adventure, to say the least, especially trying to repair the old blower motor. Instead of repairing it, it was basically destroyed when I was disassembling it. The brass bearing was essentially frozen onto the shaft, so in order to repair the OEM blower, I'd have to cannibalize another to repair it. Long story short, like trying to repair the factory clock, the blower motor was destroyed. Lessons learned, a new blower motor and clock at a cost of about $600.
Another lesson learned, when istalling the new foam on the air diversion plates, I noticed the foam was tight against the housing wall, which one would intuitively think makes a good seal for the unit to divert the air properly. However, as I came to find out, this isn't a "sealed" unit like the cars made today and these diversion plates are essentially just that, to change the airflow. In this case, the foam gasket around the defroster plate makes a tight seal. This in theory seems like a good thing, but what I found out was that the foam next to the housing has to flap back and forth when the lever is pulled or pushed. This poses a huge problem for the defroster controls, as it is pushed open when the defrost lever is opened. In my case, the pressure it takes to adjust the foam seal on the plate from one side of the plate to the other, chaning directions inside the housing, it is too much for the cable to overcome and it caused a tremendous amount of stress on the plastic heater control housing in addition to bending the cable that is inside the cable housing.
Either I didn't read the directions properly, or it was never mentioned in the literature, but having a tight seal between the plate and heater housing causes the defrost cable to bend, so I'd suggest that you trim the foam so it doesn't have to change directions between the diversion plate and the heater housing wall when you turn on your defroster.
As you can see the foam is right up next to the housing of the heater box.
View attachment IMG_1565.jpeg
Another lesson learned, when istalling the new foam on the air diversion plates, I noticed the foam was tight against the housing wall, which one would intuitively think makes a good seal for the unit to divert the air properly. However, as I came to find out, this isn't a "sealed" unit like the cars made today and these diversion plates are essentially just that, to change the airflow. In this case, the foam gasket around the defroster plate makes a tight seal. This in theory seems like a good thing, but what I found out was that the foam next to the housing has to flap back and forth when the lever is pulled or pushed. This poses a huge problem for the defroster controls, as it is pushed open when the defrost lever is opened. In my case, the pressure it takes to adjust the foam seal on the plate from one side of the plate to the other, chaning directions inside the housing, it is too much for the cable to overcome and it caused a tremendous amount of stress on the plastic heater control housing in addition to bending the cable that is inside the cable housing.
Either I didn't read the directions properly, or it was never mentioned in the literature, but having a tight seal between the plate and heater housing causes the defrost cable to bend, so I'd suggest that you trim the foam so it doesn't have to change directions between the diversion plate and the heater housing wall when you turn on your defroster.
As you can see the foam is right up next to the housing of the heater box.
View attachment IMG_1565.jpeg
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