re: 164 questions

["Sedon, Doug (OD/ORS)" <sedond@domain.elided>]

hi ed,

can't help ya w/the a/t problem in your 164 - i owned one w/an a/t for only
about 3 days, 'til i traded it for an 's'-cammed 3.0 transplant into my gtwe6,
plus 30 hours free labor...  ;~)

re: air blowing out only thru the defrost vents, ya, that's the stepper motor's
plastic-toothed gears that have been stripped & aren't engaging properly.  my
164 had the same problem.  normal repair calls for pulling the dash.  but the
manual sez ya have to pull the a/c & heater core before ya pull the dash.  when
replacing my heater core recently, i noticed the back of my failed steppers
peering out at me, after the a/c unit had come out.  so i pulled off the
glovebox, cut a hole in the panel behind it, and was able to do the stepper
repair w/not too much extra work.  i took foto's of the cut hole - ewe have to
be wery careful not to cut ductwork/wiring/cabling behind the panel.  

also, as i'd bought a brand-gnu set of stepper motors 2 years ago, before i'd
heard about metal replacement gears, i installed this brand-gnu set, along w/the
aussie metal gears i got later.  this means i now have my old set, refurbished
w/brand-gnu n.o.s. plastic gears (different color from the originals, but i have
no way of knowing whether this means they're improved) from the gnu stepper, if
yer interested in a set on-the-cheap.  as i recall. it was ~$280 for the
stepper-motor set, & ~$150 for the double-set of metal gears needed to switch
out both steppers.

good luck,

doug

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