MY83944

Hey all, been a long time, good to be seen.

I thought this was a problem -



My defroster has been inop for a while, and I finally bought a new control unit and installed it today.



Started at 8:00, finished by 10:00 and it could of been quicker, but there was a wiring "opportunity" or two, imagine that.

At this point I wondered if maybe I should of marked any of the wires -



Just kidding, pretty easy to figure out where everything goes.

Replaced the old control unit, found that when I replaced the heater valve under the hood, I must of applied too much pressure to the cable, things like that happen to us novice mechanics.

And then something else came to my attention - wish the picture was better.....



Ouch, well, now I know why the defroster does not work -

I removed this piece from the defroster control arm at the flapper box -



Uh oh -

Here is a picture of what is broken off -



I could not find a breakdown of the flapper box, so it must require replacement as a unit.

That may be more than I can tackle at this time, a little cardboard and some ingenuity will do for now.

The old control unit probably could of been made to work fine, but I'm not good at putting a price on experience, and that is what I'm chalking this up too.

Overall, a great morning, seriously, it was not bad.

I've had this car for a long time, more than a decade, and something you learn about them is to expect the unexpected.

Looks like I'll have to pull the dash to make that repair, drain the cooling system, you know, not much is simple or easy when it comes to working on these cars.

Good stuff - for another day!

MAGK944

Free bump - Sorry I cannot be of assistance to you but what exactly is a defroster?

MY83944

I pondered this a bit.

Decided to try something, after a little thought and prayer.

Took one of my pick's, you know the kind I hope, one end is straight and the other bent at a 90 degree angle.

Well, I heated that bent end up really well, and then I crawled up under the dash and pressed it into the flapper valve stub, to make a hole in it.

Took a couple tries, gotter done.

Went to the hunt up a screw that I thought might work, found one.

Checked the level itself, that broken piece, drilled a tiny hole in the end, big enough for the screw to thread through.

Theory was this - maybe I could screw the old lever back in place, I know, a long shot, but worth a try, nothing to loose really.

After some trial and error, here is where I ended up at -



And, it works too, hummmm.........

You know what, Faith is a wonderful thing.

Some might thank something else, I'll just thank the Lord right now.

We'll see how it holds up.

Luis de Prat

Thanks for this most interesting post.

Hey mike, actually a defroster is just as useful in hot rainy climates. While living in the Caribbean I found it was great to dry out a foggy 944 rear hatch in rainy weather!

Grandpa#3

Nothing will stand in the way of a determined man. Oh, and woman!!! One must always be politically correct now days or stand the risk of being really flamed.

Cheers,
Larry

moorepower

Fixed it fer ya'.

MY83944

So far so good, heater/defroster controls working well.

Maybe I'll get in some winter fun time this year!

yellowline

Yeah, but when your heater control valve breaks (and defaults to full hot), you really bake.