So I had posted before I had a stuck defrost flap, servo/ actuators all moving but flap is broken. I have just begun working at night on this issue.

This is a 3.0 v6 US market left hand drive automatic. Hvac system stuck on defrost. I do not recommend this method but car is 14 years old.

I removed glove box and pulled and tested actuators/ servos then tried manual movement. Sad to say no movement of flat just spinning.


Behind glove box
After spinning the white plastic and it was obviously not attached to flap, I got out the bore scope and stuck it down the defrost vent.




Broken flap as seen on left side lower is the twisted shaft broken broken off.

I do not want to remove the HVAC box and all the mess that comes along with it.

I disconnected bottom heater core cover, just incase I loose a part in the hole had to remove rear air tube under it. (This may bot be needed if your carefull).


Next cutting hole.

 

Now trying not to butcher to much I measured and plotted out thst the vent must be behind a specific area as seen on the driver's side. Took the gable but messed up my cut. Ended up with a wild cut do to restricted space but was able to get it out

Defrost flap hole seen with flap removed
this is from the left side on the left hand side under the drivers side..

I did not remove anything on this side beside the bottom carpeted trim. I left knee pannel and all in place. Not the easiest way but I got a window.

Because I didn't care about my own contortions I was also able to reach through that hole and remove the broken pin from the other side.


Flap is out both parts, and ready for repair and reinforcement.


Next as I repair the part.

 

Plastic welded back together keeping straight. This is done with a plastic welding tool. Disregard the off color bits its left from the last use of the welder.

After welding some epoxy reinforcement shoukd ve used.

Using JB weld plastic bonder (rated for plastics including thermo plastic) a coating is put on the stress points. This is re-coated for a second layer in corners of stress.


I must wait for a few hours for full cure.

Also will reinforce the end for the servo woth the same plastic inside the socket. Must wrap servo splines in plastic wrap to maintain the ability to remove it. Allow to cure.

 

servo shown with plastic over spindle, epoxy in hoke curing to make a perfect spline repair

Next reassembly with welding cover.

 

Plastic welded the left side back in. It works fine now. Gave the epoxy a few hours to cure before installing.

will skim coat the housing in plastic epoxy for a final finish


It's not pretty but no one will see it.

It works good.

 

Outstanding job! I’ve had this problem for a couple years but will try this first warm day to work outside

 

I still hope to have enough time one day to do the excellent and very detailed steps above to more comprehensively fix this problem on my Jag. BUT... in the meantime here is what we did as a temporary but effective compromise. I was able to reach under the dash on the air handler box on the (US) drivers side and find where the shaft that the flap rotates on can be seen from the outside of the box like shown on photo below


Its the whiteish round piece. I rotated the end of that shaft in different directions while a helper told me if the airflow changed from defrost only to other vents. Once we determined that I was getting a significant amount of air coming from the face vents I was able to create a "tool" out of a scrap piece of plastic that could wedge/set that shaft and then used some good tape to fix it in place. Now I get a large amount of air through the face vents and also some still from defrost. Its not permanent fix but I do get a good mix of airflow now. One of these days though........

 

When i did that it longer to get epoxy to cure than the work. It helps to have a plastic welder (hot iron for plastics) and after this i fround the joy of a plastic welder that is the pin style where you melt in and leave metal joiners and then use the other iron style and epoxy.

Sadly I parted with that jag, had it going good and road ready but i needed to replace a pickup so I had to sell it.

Good luck with yours but it worked great. I know the guy that bought it from me and it's still working good after the fix. (I did show him it before he bought it).