My turn with the broken blend door...

I actually started investigating a no front heat problem (rear heat works great) last year before I discovered that I had started losing coolant (which was leaking into the motor via the intake gasket).. Got all that fixed now, but still no heat. I've been troubleshooting the last two days to isolate the problem:
1) I've confirmed hot water is circulating through the heater core. Both hoses are hot and the heater box gets very warm where the heater core is.
2) I've confirmed the blend door actuator is working, and isn't making any funny noises like it has broken teeth. It is plainly viewable with the glove box removed, and I can see the shaft cycle smoothly throughout its range of motion.

The faint sound of the actuator is all I hear (I unplugged the fan to remove that noise). I would *think* I should hear the blend door moving inside the heater box, or at the very least stopping at each end of travel, but I hear absolutely nothing.

This all leads me to believe I'm joining the 'repair or replace the broken blend door' club. I have been reading many threads on the repair and wanted to post here to get feedback/confirmation from those that have done it (I'm looking at you 12ounce ;) ) before I go hacking away at my heater box. I created a new thread as all of them were very old other than the handful bumped by mr heatertreater.com :D. Right now I'm removing the console skirt and radio so I can remove the actuator and have a look at the end of the shaft on the blend door before I start cutting the box.

Sound like I am on the right track?

Mine looks to be broken exactly like the one 12Ounce originally posted. The corner broke off the door, and the opening is still intact. I'm hoping I can repair it the same way he did. I just need to cut the hole a little bigger so I can get the door out.

How did you get the door back in? Does the panel pull out enough if you unbolt it from the top section to slip the door in and get it through the hole in the panel? That heater-treater piece looks nice, but for $120 I'm gonna try to fix mine first. The rest of the door looks good (from what I can tell).

Is there a chance that you have a large Ford warehousing facility in your area .... I bet so! If so, I suggest you find if they have a replacement ac/heat plenum on hand, and will let you inspect it. This is what I originally did ... I borrowed a plenum across the counter, spent about 30 minutes with it... inspecting at all angles, making digital images galore ... until I realized where the plenum should be cut to withdraw the blend-door. After repair the repaired-door goes back in thru the same cut. The cut is later covered by a plastic duct, so it does not have to be repaired.

I discovered that some Ford plenums, on some model year F-150's, etc., are made with cut-lines moulded into the plenums ... to guide someone who needs to make the cut.

did you see this string with images?:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=522563&highlight=Phordguy

did you see this string with images?:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=522563&highlight=Phordguy

Yes, I saved some of those off. I've got the hole cut big enough for the blend door to pass through - but I can't get it out because it hits the metal braces under the dash. Is there more bracing in a 2000? It just seems like the only way it can come out is to remove a section of bracing (not ideal) or cut into the top part of the box as well, being careful to stay away from the evaporator lines. Even then, I can see it being tricky. I can't figure out where you are describing that would be covered by a vent and allow the door to be removed. The heater core is between the door and the floor vent. I'll get it.. Just gonna take some figurin' :)

Ok so apparently there have been a couple ways to do this, and I just figured out that they way you did it was not the same way as the other set of pics I was looking at. I didn't think it would be practical to remove the heater core and cut the bottom of the plenum off above where the heater core goes and pull it out through there, but apparently it is possible. I have already pulled the console bracing and floor duct out and removed the screws that hold the bottom cover over the heater core, so really I'm just short of disconnecting the heater core from being able to do that (how much coolant did you spill inside the van removing the heater core?)

The only alternative I've come up with still doesn't help me get the door out so I can repair it outside the vehicle. I can get it out far enough that I could repair it in place, but I couldn't get epoxy on both sides and I suspect that will be critical for a lasting repair.

I wish I could find the original posting of this fix, the images may not be there now ... but the text might be helpful.

Yes, the heater core (in my procedure) gets dropped. That means that the cover gets dropped. And I remember if you try to separate the cover first from the core... you are in a whole-heap of trouble! Best to remove them together.

Once you have removed the heater hoses from the heater core (at the firewall, under the hood) it is good to plug the heater core inlet/outlet with rams of paper towels ... this will keep the coolant spillage to a minimum in the cabin.

Now I remember that it was the heater core cover that covers-over the plenum cut line ... making cut-line repair unnecessary.

You must get the entire blend door out on the bench for proper repair.

I don't know exactly what you have cut so far ... but if you go back and carefully read each posting of mine and Phordfan's in his string (ignoring those from others) and look at each image. (You can resurrect each image by clinking on the link.) If you do all this, I don't see how you can go wrong.

Of course things look differently when you're working upside down (our images were made of extra plenums outside of a vehicle). If you pay particular attention to my images that are red-marked, you will see cut paths "A-B", "B-C" and "C-D". Three rather straight-line cuts.

(Note: My repaired blend door still functions these many years later.)

BTW, I don't know why I remember this detail ... but there are seven screws holding the core cover in place (at least on my model) ... so be prepared for screws hidden on the backside, up against the cabin firewall.

Yeah, I looked for a long time for your original post, as it seemed to me that you "pioneered" the procedure, but never found them. I agree that the repair is best made outside the van. I'm debating with myself whether I want to try something new or bite the bullet now and pull the heater core. What I have in mind may work out, or it may fail - it may be worth the attempt just to provide another option.. I'll post some pics later depending on what I do and how it works out. :-)

Ah .... I remember now. It was a different forum that went defunct. I don't remember the forum name.

Or at least I think so ....

Well it is a bit early to report success, but last night I decided to continue with my approach for now and repaired the blend door with the end sticking out of the plenum. I sanded just a tiny bit off the broken edge of the corner piece to create a small gap for the epoxy to fill, and also scuffed the flat edges to give it something to bite to. I put 1-minute epoxy along the broken edge and then held the two pieces together long enough for it to set. Then I mixed up some more epoxy and filled in the flat area next to the hinge where the crack angled across with epoxy. With the blend door in the up (heat) position I may be able to do the same with the bottom side, which will produce a pretty strong repair like yours. The top surface looks pretty much like yours in the old photo of your repaired door.

To reinstall the door I cut above and below the pivot hole and pulled it out just enough to get the hinge through and set into both holes. It pivots freely in the box and feels good. I'm letting it set up for 24 hrs before I put everything back together, but installed the actuator long enough to do some testing and confirm everything is working and it moves freely. Something is clicking a bit when I move it to the heat (raised) position, so I need to get my stethoscope out and confirm whether the noise is coming from the actuator or inside the plenum. It only happens when it's raising the door, so I half suspect it's the gears inside the actuator. I do think I'm not going to use glue or epoxy on the heater box until I am satisfied the repair is going to last.

Thank you for all of the great information you have provided. I know I'm kind of going my own way with this, but I had gone far enough down this path before I realized that I had mis-understood what you did that I want to see it through. Worst case, I get to do this again. It doesn't take that long to get the lower dash apart, so it won't be the end of the world. :)

Good luck with your method! Gotta be more than one way to "skin a cat"!

I checked the repaired blend door last night to see how the repair looked. I can see that the epoxy isn't bonded well to the end of the shaft, so I'm a bit suspect that it will last very long without better reinforcing. There really isn't good enough access to the bottom of the door in the up position because of the lip around the edge of the heater core opening that it seals against. So, I need to get the door out to do a better repair. I watched the heater-treater video again and finally figured out where he cut the bracing to bend it out of the way to create room to get the blend door in and out. I'm going to give that a whack after work. It doesn't look too hard and I want to keep from pulling the heater core if I don't need to.

I haven't dug back into things, but we did take a 6-hour round trip road trip this weekend and had no issues with it. I think if I had used slower-setting epoxy after using the fast-set stuff to bond the broken piece back on, I wouldn't have anything to worry about. I will report back later with pictures of the final process.

Well, I got it done, but I'm still undecided whether it was worth doing it this way or not. On the plus side, I didn't have to disconnect the heater core and remove the center dash support brace and floor duct again (that sucked the first time), but on the negative side, it was physically impossible to get the factory blend door out even after cutting and bending the bracing out of the way. However, I was able to get the job done and I think it will last. Cutting the hole in the front of the heater box was not terribly difficult after removing the glovebox, lower console cover, radio, and heater control panel for access. The door then came out far enough to apply the epoxy. If more than the front corner of the door that the blend door motor drives breaks off, this might not be feasible. I initially only cut up to where the two halves of the box meet, but I ended up cutting it larger in my attempt to get the door all the way out. There was plenty of room to work with the smaller opening, though the larger opening did make it easier to move the door around as I was working.

I used 30-minute epoxy, applied with a popsicle stick (craft stick) on top side, and a metal paste-flux brush on the bottom side. I bought a carbon-fiber strip at the hobby shop to reinforce the door, and applied it similar to fiberglass matting, by laying down a bit of epoxy, then sticking the carbon-fiber strip to the epoxy and coating the whole thing in epoxy. It worked very well on top. On the bottom it was a bit more of a challenge, as it would run down the craft stick before I could apply it, which is why I bought the brushes. I also put a bit too much hardener in my first batch of epoxy, so it started setting up as I was trying to apply it, and it ended up just being big mess. It did stick well and was strong, so I just covered all of that with a new batch of epoxy using the brush after letting it sit long enough to thicken and not drip off after applying it. I used a few dabs of hot glue to hold the pieces of the box back in place so I could seal it up with the foil tape -- I should have used high temp glue, but the multi-temp stuff was already loaded in the glue gun.. hopefully it won't melt and drip, but there isn't that much, and it will just run down the inside of the box to the ledge around the heater core if it does.

Here are a few pics of the process. Because the carbon fiber is black and buried in the epoxy, you really can't see it, but it really is there. I used five strips - one in each "corner" of the axle shaft over the break and one on the gusset on the top side where the break was on the flap side of the door. I wanted to embed the thumbnails in the post and caption each one, but I couldn't figure out how to do that.

Did you ever consider this source?- I've used them a few times- definitely worth it...

http://www.heatertreater.net/magento/index.php/ford/windstar/ford-windstar-95-03.html

Did you ever consider this source?- I've used them a few times- definitely worth it...

http://www.heatertreater.net/magento/index.php/ford/windstar/ford-windstar-95-03.html

I did, but for the price, after spending $500 getting the van back on the road after a year, I didn't want to spend $120 on something I can probably make myself, without first attempting to repair the door using epoxy. Plus the fact that they spammed the board in July on every thread mentioning the blend door or blend door motor kind of turned me off a bit. :P

I did watch the videos though, and that is why I was hopeful I could get the blend door out to repair it, but there was no way it was coming out in one piece. The replacement door from them does not have the bulge of the factory one, and is two pieces, so I think that makes it possible to get it installed easier.