Rebuilding/Refurbing the head unit on the 79. Cleaning things up, putting on new sliders and giving it illumination to match the pod.

I went with Red LED and the unit itself looks awesome on the face, but the fiber optic cable is so worn out, it wont' pic up or transmit any of the light.
So, I"m sourcing some places to get it and found this one
http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Jacketed.htm as well as a few more.
I can go up to 3mm but will have to make some mods.
Anyone been there done it yet?

Let me know. Thanks.

 

I have mine out (with the rest of the car ) and it seemed like the fiberoptics weren't really good in the first place. When you work that out, please post. I have to paint the car first, but I was planning on making the HVAC work properly in its stock form with the sliders and stuff. Did you make notes on the routing, etc of t he hoses?

 

Brandan,

There are 4 cables all together. A splitter on the top with two and a splitter on the bottom with 2. The upper feeds the top slider and also feeds the fan control, the bottom feeds the bottom slider and feeds the bottom part of the fan control. There is just absolutely minimal light that emits from the fibers. It's not to complicated its just finding the right size combo of fibers to make it work.

On a different note, do me a favor and look at the bottom of your control head. There are 3 solder joints that the control runs on or "slides" against. One of mine had a break in it. I looks almost too clean to be broken, looks more like it should be that way. PM me and I'll send you a photo to compare it to. Thanks!

 

I hope this helps Chuck.



I appreciate your description on the control. Did you take pics of the colors and routing for the lines?

 

The vac lines that is.

 

Brandan,

That's exactly what I needed! Now here's the deal, mine is set up the same way only I have a small break in that solder joint. Yours looks like the solder joint (furthest to the left) is pretty much gone until the last part of the stroke. It looks as if it should be that way, the cut is just too damn clean!
I suspect it is suposed to be that way so there is no contact until that certain point??!!

I bet Jim at Intl. could answer it for us. Jim, you there???

BTW, when I pulled off my vac lines, it comes off as a unit. I did not pull individual lines off. There was a big plenum on the back with about 4 clips and it came off as a unit. They are all green except for the one yellow that goes to the diaphram directly behind the center vent. If you need some pics I'll stick the camera back up in there and fire away. Let me know.

Thanks for the pic!!

 

Brandan,

Look up at the 2nd pic I posted. Actually there is a red and a blue vac hose there in the mass of green tubes. I can track down the ultimate destination, probably easier to look in the shop manual. Again the yellow is short and goes straight to the center diaphram that you can actually see in the pic.

Hope that helps!

 

Yeah, I'm the monkey bafoon that took all the lines off individually quickly one day when doing the primer around the windshield - I decided to take out the dash too and had mixed 2 part in the gun.

I think the books do say something about routing, but if you don't mind and its out, just a quick snap of the manifold from the top and bottom if you will - if possible. THANKs!

 

I've been this route recently, as well. A diagram of the hvac vacuum line routing is in the WSM - its a little confusing at first but after staring at it for a while it begins to make sense. Anyone know what the white line does?

My fiber optics were also shot and here is what I did. I had one of those fiberoptic flash light toy things laying around (one of those fiber optic Chritsmas trees will work too) from which I harvested some fiber. Grouped the fiber with heat shrink and installed - worked like a charm. The trick is not to cut the ends, this will reduce the light transmitted. Pull tghe strands out. There is a special way to cut fiber with which I am not familiar.

 

Brandan,

Going out of town for a couple weeks Vaca/business, will take shots when I get back. My system should be intact as I'm pretty sure the dash has never been off.

Scott, thanks for the input on the fiber optics. I know there is a special tool to cut them, I saw it on one of the web sites I happened to hit. BTW, you're in Baton Rouge huh. You need to drive over to our 3rd coast event we're having on Sept 24-26th. It's outside of Austin in Marble falls. Working on the details and I'll get them to you as we get closer.

Thanks again guys!