I have the normal, non-automatic climate control. But when I have the slider in the "vent" position, I don't get any air, even at 80mph, unless I actually turn the fan on. Does anyone know how these climate control systems work, enough to jury rig the vent to just let in fresh air without having to have the fan on all the time?

 

What about the black switch below your dash? On the driver side lower dashpanel, there should be a black lever to pull for vent. I was wondering if maybe that was it. I will go look for you.

 

Yeah that is what it looks like to me. It says pull to open, I would think it is the vent. But I am not 100% sure on that. And I couldn't test it for you, because I drive him with the windows down.

 

If you need to rig something then zip ties are your friend here. Just get under the dash (or better yet, remove the dash) and find the vents you want either open or closed and zip tie them in place. Of course this is not the end all of fixes. But if nothing is working and you dont want to bother with fixing it then that would get you by. The system works off of vacuum to control the doors. The handle wildmaN suggested also works off of vacuum. So if you dont have the vacuum signal to the actuators then they wont work. If it's just the vent doors that are not working then that particular actuator is most likely bad, has a damaged or disconnected linkage, or the hose is disconnected.

 

i have no A/C, but i still have it in boxes in the rafters

 

Hmm, I always thought that lever under the dash was to open the floor vents, so I never tried it out. I would've imagined the "vent" position would've been "open" by default, instead of requiring vacuum to be kept open. That would've made more sense to me.

Well, if I do have to resort to zip-tying the external air door open, does anyone have any idea where it is? It'll be hard to know if I've got the right door unless the car is in motion, in which case it'd be dangerous to be trying to fiddle under the dash while driving!

 

The Haynes manual has a pretty detailed diagram of the a/c vent system. When I first had my Z, I zip-tied the face vents open... until I found out that they are all powered by vacuum, and the hose was disconnected.

Is it too much to just turn on the vent to the lowest, and then select vent?