86WS6

iTrader: (1)

Are any companies making a reproduction blend door cable for our cars? I need one for my 82 Firebird. It has the red clip. I have bought a total of six used ones, and none of them work correctly. Everyone of them binds up. The blend door works freely and so does the dash lever. I have one cable with a green clip one that is too long but works freely when installed on the car, so I am pretty sure that I am buying worn out cables and need a new one. Thanks in advance.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

I've never seen one of those fail, except by somebody taking it apart the wrong way.

86WS6

iTrader: (1)

The original cable was bound up when I bought the car. The car is all original with 25 K actual miles on it, and those miles were driven the first two years of the car's life. The car had been sitting a long time and the original owner said that no one had been inside of the dashboard since the car was new. When we removed the cover from under the passenger side, the cable had bent into a 90 degree angle. I have found longer cables that work the mechanism easily, however the differences in length means a different length of travel for the cable, so that that heater control only move part of the was and moves the blend door through full range of motion. I even had the dealer look at it when they replaced the evaporator, hoses, compressor and such due to multiple Freon leaks. The technician at the dealership said that the lubricant inside of the original cable sheath had dried out causing the cable to bind up. There has been some speculation that the plastic sheath cracks and swells causing the cable to bind. That's where we are at right now with it. The blend door moves back and forth easily. In fact when we run the ac we have to tie the blend door open, or the force of the air flow will push it closed. The dash controls move easily. With the longer cable the whole assembly moves easily, but it limits the travel. I need a working cable the correct length. Do you have one to sell?

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

No, sorry... I only have one, and as many times as I've taken it apart, it's still good... but I'll keep you in mind if I come across any undamaged ones.

John in RI

iTrader: (167)

Are you sure that your buying the correct replacement cable ?? ( probably why all the replacements you've bought get kinked once installed. )

I've got limited experience with 82's,.... but in all the Thirdgens I remember working on there was a single cable used for the AC HAVC system. It opens/closes the temp blend door and it used a BLACK clip. There are 2 versions of this cable,... one length for AC and 1 length for non-AC cars.

For 82-89 NON-AC cars the Heater controller used an additional 2 cables to control air flow ( Mode ). 1 non AC cable has a BLUE clip and the other non AC cable has a RED clip.

All 90-92 cars had a vacuum controlled HVAC controller and air flow (mode) was no longer controlled by the Blue & Red cables. However,... the AC and Non AC cars still used specific length cable with a BLACK clip for the temp Blend door.

Check into it !

86WS6

iTrader: (1)

Thanks John. I think that is exactly what the problem is. The car had been sitting a lot when I got it. The original owner started it once every so often and sent it out for an oil change once a year. The cable was frozen when I bought the car. I bought a couple of cables off of E-bay and was having a shop do the work. They were replacing most of the AC parts as the all of the seals were bad and it would not hold Freon. They changed out the cables several times, and by the time I got the car back, no one knew which cable came with the car and which one were the replacements. Unfortunately, we ended up with three different colored cables, a black, red, and a green one. The shop thought that the red one was the original, so I have been looking for another red one. I bought a whole control panel with the cable attached. It is a black cable. Have yet to fully install it, but did connect the cable to the blend door and it operates like it is supposed to. My control panel has a crack in it, so I am going to use the whole assembly for replacement.