I've got a problem. See, despite being a bit of a project, this IS my daily driver. And right now there's a big "fresh air" hole that dumps into the hood area... And my vents connect to said area. So, at about 35MPH, you get a nice little breeze. Not too shabby in 65-75*F... But this is ALSO going to be my daily in 10*F weather. So I need to block up that hole. Hell, I spent a ton on a new A/C setup. I figure I can install part of it (the blower motor) and just do the rest later. But before I can install the blower motor, I need to get the flapper boxes installed, since the cables route behind the blower motor. And before I can install the flapper boxes, I need to attach the new cables to them. These are the cables I purchased. The ones you CAN still get new. So...
Here are the boxes.
Remove the little clips and replace the old/rusty cable:
Reinstall the clip:
Repeat three times (even though I have four cables, one of them is still good):
And before I connect half the cables to the other box, I think I'll test it...
Aah... So THAT'S the problem. It's not just that the old cables were rusty and semi-seized... The box itself is broken. Well, let's see what a new one costs. PET guide says it's part number 911-571-049-07, listed as a "Control Box". Aaaaand, it's no longer available. Naturally. So, 3D printer to the rescue! I started by removing the top part of the housing that points to the defrost vents. It had a clip like this on one side (the other side being broken... Of course):
Then four of these little rings. I can already tell they're gonna be fun to reinstall:
And just like that, the flapper box separates...
Revealing the busted flap itself:
made up a model:
