Some forum members have reported having cracked climate control *****. If you look on ebay you will see many used climate control assemblies for $150+ that already have cracked ***** like the one below.

I decided to buy a climate control assembly both as a spare, and to have spare *****. The ***** look good on the outside, but I found on the back that one **** had a crack starting, but it had not gone far enough yet to split the face of the ****.


My first thought was to put a spring metal ring around the outside of the **** shaft, but it's oblong and that wouldn't work. I decided to epoxy the shaft adding thread reinforcement wrapped around it. I used a strong upholstery thread and super glued the the first loop knot to the shaft.

I mixed up some J-B Weld original formula and applied it to the **** shaft. I then wrapped the shaft with the thread and covered that with a little more epoxy. I added a little bit of epoxy down at the base where the cracks would split out onto the face surface of the ****.



I plan to do all my Crossfire ***** to protect them.

Items used:
JB Weld Original Cold Weld Reinforced

Coats and Clark Extra Strong Upholstery Thread

Aluminum Tube (1/16 size for wrapping thread around **** shaft)

 

The cracks are caused by internal stresses from the moulding process and irregular shapes concentrate the stress at one or more points.
I doubt that this will stop the cracks as the forces are considerable.
A slow cool down after moulding relieves stresses, but often the part distorts too much.

 

Thank you for another save from my Dunning-Kruger.

 

LOL
I worked in the plastics industry for forty years, designing parts and moulds so I learnt from my mistakes. So I should know a lot but unfortunately not.😀

 

It may help to keep the shafts for both ***** lubricated to reduce the amount of stress turning them

 

A little silicone grease could easily be applied to the detent assembly.

I'm very pleased with how well the first **** came out. The JB weld epoxy is their strongest rated over 5,000 PSI, and encasing the thread wrapped many times around the shaft helps keep it from splitting. It's rock solid. I did the second **** for the spare assembly today and will follow through with doing the ***** on the cars later as I'm actually in the middle of replacing the valve cover gaskets and breather seals on the 06 Crossfire.

 

Nice work! Thank you for sharing!

 

Thank you for the kind words!

dcskmail suggested adding lubrication. I applied a small amount of silicone grease to the detent areas of the assembly. Silicone grease will not harm plastic. That did make the ***** easier to turn, so there is less stress force on the *****.