The auto climate control in my 81 280zx is suffering, and so am I! There is air flow...to the floor only, as that's where the previous owner manually rigged the flaps to point. There are two fan speeds slow/fast. There is no control of temp or direction of air flow. Including no defrost. I imagine I'm looking at removing the dash. Anyone got any hints as to where to start in fault finding...anybody ever seen a tech bulletin/procedure for this?

Thanks,

Rich, not wealthy (new 280ZX owner)

 

before you rip out half your dash board.. id check to see if your vacuume hoses are all coonected first.. the climate control vents are all powered by vacuume.. go under your hood to see if you might have a split in your hoses.. that can sometimes cause your vents to not work

 

Thanks for the heads up,
I was aware that they're vacuum controlled, but I'll be happy to play around under the hood before I play around under the dash. Especially if it means I don't have to play around under the dash at all.

Rich

 

I've got the same system but my vent positions work fine. My fan speed is either medium or high.

Anyway, I've never had a problem with the hoses so I don't really know where they are. I know the 280Z had some in the engine compartment. As for the ZX... they might be under the dash.

But, if you want to fix or replace your heater system with the manual controls, you should be able to yank out the center console and lower dash panels while leaving the main dash in place.

 

I've got the same problem with my auto cc blowing air only at my feet. As far as I can tell, the hoses under the hood seem fine. I did find a short vac hose under the dash hanging disconnected, but I'm unable to tell what it was plugged into.

If I wanted to swap out my auto cc for a manual cc unit, is it just a matter of swapping control units, or would the heater core have to be changed too?

 

The heater core would be the same. I'm wondering how much of the flaps or pull wires need to be swapped for that conversion. I want to do that with mine soon.

 

I'M GETTING SOME COPIES OF THE FACT REPAIR MANUAL FOR THE AUTO-AIR. EMAIL ME YOUR ADDRESS AND I'LL SEND YOU ONE.
BJ_BISIG@YAHOO.COM

 

Check the vacuum lines in the hood, if they are wired incorrectly, it will not let the actuator for the CC switch positions and will get stuck blowing at your feet. (at least mine did). The P.O. had the lines backwards. Only thing I have to do now is figure out why it only wants to work when it's freezing cold outside and not when it's hot or humid (i.e. rainy days).
John 82ZXT