Prior to mid 87 the hoses for the end vents come off the heater box right near the opening that faces the front grill. There is no provision for any adjustment of the air flow to those hoses. Whatever pressure the forward motion of the van puts into the heater box opening is all that is available to come out of those vents. This would only be outside air temp air. From mid 87 on the hoses connect to a different spot on the heater box, about as far from the front of the van as they could. In that spot they can only get whatever pressure the forward motion puts into the box but only after that pressure passes through the heater core and fan. Thus the air can now be heated by the heater core, but in trade for the reduced flow seemingly made inevitable by the partial obstruction of the heater. For some period of time such as maybe 86-89 the boxes were built with both hose locations molded into the box but the hose opening was only drilled out for whichever hose location was to be used. The hoses themselves differ in size and shape and can NOT be moved from the location they were built for. The other type hose is needed to use the other hose location. In both cases the amount of air that comes out of the end vents can be reduced by opening any of the 3 levers that control flow to OTHER location. There is no central lever that directly controls the end dash vent flow. It can only be directly controlled at the vents themselves, and indirectly by how much flow is shared with other outlets There is no mystery to this once you hold both types of heater box in your hands and look closely. By the same token there is no mystery about the mid 87 switch as the ETKA shows what vin# the switch took place at by the change in part numbers for the different hose setup. I have only looked at this for North American market vehicles so it is possible that vehicles delivered in other markets diff. We covered all this ground on this list many years ago and a few times since. I have owned many 86 and 87 vans as well as other years and back then noted that my early 87 had the same as my 86 while my later 87 had the different setup. Of course with all the dead heater fans and cores over the years it is likely that some people have swapped working units from other years into a year that originally had another type. Mark
Jake de Villiers wrote: > I tried Mark's LLRR settings on the way home from work in Dixie with the > Behr Indash AC and got nothing - with Dix the LLLR is the breeziest. > > I just went out front and tried the Grey van (parked) and with the levers > LLRR the fan blows tons of air through the dash end vents. > > Just reporting, Jake > |
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