Heater Problem, NOT actuator

I have an 03 Windstar. Cold air is blowing, no heat. WHen I googled problem there was a bunch of stuff about the actuator. So I removed the center bezel, radio, and heater/ac controls panel. Pupped off the actuator.

The gear were in tact and it was responding fine to the heater controls. ACtuator works great. Then I did some more searching and found that it could be the blend door. This fix looks a lot tougher. But i'm not convinced that is it.

WHen I put my 1/2 screw driver into the d-hole where the actuator goes and turn, I can feel a good amount of weight/resistance on it. And it thunks back and forth as if I'm really moving a door or something larger than a broken hinge back and forth. And when I do that you can hear and feel the air change. It doesn't get hot, but it sounds different and I can feel a change in air flow as the door is swinging back and forth (at least I think I do). But still no heat.

Is there an easier step I'm missing that I shoudl have checked first? My upper radiator hose is hot so I assumed the thermostat was fine. Was that a bad assumption?

Also I don't have any leaking or fogging so I figure heater core was fine (I had one break on me once). Could that be clogged or something? IS there a way for me to easily check, while all this stuff is removed, if the heater core is working?

I think I may have just jumped ahead too far and not diagnosed properly the simpler things. I would love if someone could share a little widsom that could help me before I start trying to dremel into something that might not even be broken. Thanks.

Hi
First thing whenever you have no heat is to carefully check coolant level. As you are comfortable diving in deeper I trust you may have already done so but wanted to remind you of that.

How about rear heat? Any luck there? It is a separate core. If you have no heat there I would seriously consider a source (coolant) problem due to no flow, or no/very low coolant.

Good luck

Once you have verified that your cooling system has enough coolant in it, get the engine warmed up. Even before the upper radiator hose gets hot, you can get hot coolant to the heater cores because the thermostat won't let the coolant leave the engine to the radiator until it reaches a certain temperature, somewhere near 200 F. There are two black hoses about one inch in diameter that go to the fire wall behind the engine. Unfortunately, after looking at mine, it's not easy seeing what you are looking for as it's crowded. One hose should come from the front of the engine/belt area (left)(actually it starts out as a shiny pipe at the water pump, snakes to the back and then becomes a hose, splits to the front and back of the van)and the other should make its way from the back(right) of the engine to the same place. This one will actually be easier to find as it is next to the upper radiator hose at the back of the engine and then goes to the firewall. The back/right hose should be the hotest as it is leaving the engine and the front one should be cooler but still be warm as it is leaving the heater and returning to the engine. To test this on my two vehicles, I had to run the heat at the highest and fastest settings to feel a difference with an unplugged heater core. You need long skinny arms to feel the left/front hose temp. If you find that both or one, especially the front hose doesn't get hot then you have a blocked core. To deal with that there is a recent ongoing thread on that at http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=718791&goto=nextnewest
After looking at mine, the hose on the left does not look fun to work on, maybe could work on it from underneath. The right one is alright. None of it is easy to get to. Some find it worthwhile to remove the cowl to get to the back of the engine. There has been discussion here about water pump impellers going bad on these vans so that it is possible that it can not pump throught the heater core. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Good luck.