Bill,

can you take any more pic's of the housing with the gauge cover off ? and could the black piece be a double acting flap ? just a thought.

 

alfdoc -

There is nothing left to take off to get a better view, but I think I know what is happening here.

This morning, I used a very long flat blade screwdriver to give the white piece a nudge in the right direction. As soon as it moved a little bit (without much force required), the flap was free to move back and forth by hand. I left it in the fresh air position, started the car, pressed the recirc switch and watched the flap move to the recirc position. Toggling the recirc switch to the off position left the flap locked in the recirc position.

Next, I used the screwdriver to nudge the arm coming out of the actuator back out. Once again the flap was free.

As I was moving the flap back and forth, I could see enough of the linkage operation to understand (or at least I think I understand) how it is designed to work.

The black piece below the white piece (which turns out to function as an idler) is a sector which has an arm that connects to the arm coming from the actuator as well as some gear teeth which drive the white idler which, in turn, moves the flap's lever arm.

It appears that the flap locks in the recirc position by a slight over-center action when the actuator arm is fully withdrawn. Under normal conditions, when the recirc switch is set to off and the vacuum removed from the actuator, the return spring would supply enough force to move things in the right direction and return the flap to the fresh air position.

In this case, the spring (which we see in the two photos) is connected to the black sector, but it's other end is free, so there is no restoring force at all. (The fact that the spring is not extended in the photo should have given me a clue!)

I can't really see where the free end of the spring is intended to go. I do see what appears to be a broken nub on the side of the HVAC housing, but it might just be the remnant of a molding sprue.

My plan is to get a cheap long screwdriver, file a notch near one end of the flat blade and then use it to extend the spring and see if there is something it will snag onto.

If that doesn't work, I think I'll just place the flap in the fresh air position, disconnect the vacuum valve so I don't inadvertently send it to the recirc position, put everything back together and live with it for a while to see if it's worth removing the HVAC system to either replace the housing or cobble a new mounting for the free end of the return spring.

Once again, thanks for hanging in there with me on this.

- Bill

 

Sorry to report that I had no success in trying to snag and find a parking place for the free end of the return spring.

I've now put everything back together (no parts left over when done ) and my Crossfire is back on the road with the flap in the fresh air position. We'll see if the lack of the recirculation function is noticeable enough to merit a complete tear-down of the HVAC system.

- Bill

 

Bill, good find. Its to bad you couldn't fix the return spring anchor. That's probably why they changed the blower housing on mine. Also it mite explain why some of the people on the forum are complaining about a wind buffering noise in the cab with the windows down at HWY speeds. Mine doesn't do this at all.And one last thing, when i worked for a dealership a few years ago, we use to get approval or what we called policy warranty items that were a known failed part after the warranty was lapsed. With in a short time of the end of the warranty. It my be worth a try to see if they will do a policy repair for you, that is if you have a decent dealership that you trust, also i would email Chrysler and complain about the issue if the dealership blows you off about this problem. Surly we are not the only ones that have had this failures with are xfires.

Good luck with this, Pat.