Blend door - force open/closed
 

Greetings,

I'm back on here with a different Ranger - a 2011 2.3 XLT. Had this one shipped from Alabama and the body/frame and drivetrain are perfect, but I've discovered some of the pitfalls of a sight-unseen sale. Namely, the interior has clearly been smoked in which the seller did not disclose, and what the seller described as the "AC only works on max" is clearly a blend door actuator issue. It's stuck blowing hot air constantly - perfect for this time of year. I have a new actuator on order, in the meantime, is there an easy way to force the thing into one position or another so I don't have heat blowing for the next few days?

Thanks!

Easiest would be to shut off coolant flow thru the heater core in the engine bay

You could get a coupler and remove heater hoses at the fire wall and connect them together, so no hot coolant in the cab

Not sure where the heater core bypass is on the 2.3l Duratec but that's what the MAX AC activates, in MAX AC the bypass valve closes and hot coolant flow is stopped from flowing thru heater core in the cab
If you can find it and manually close it then tape it or wire it closed that would work as well
Follow both heater hoses from firewall back to engine, the by pass will be on one or both hoses, it was vacuum actuated on V6 models, not sure on the 2.3l


As far as inside the cab, you could remove the actuator and try to close blend door over heater core but there would be no way to hold it in place so it would move
Only way to do that would be to cut open the air box behind glove box area to get your hand inside and try to tape it closed
Don't try to move it with actuator still in place or you will break the blend doors arm at the actuator and that's a very big deal to repair

Ok, thanks for the help. I did find a couple videos showing what you described. I think I'm probably just going to hang on and just drive with the windows down until the part gets here rather than risk breaking something else.

The Bypass is located directly in front of the evaporator core, it is "held in place" by a plastic bracket that clips to one of the heater core I/O hoses.

Quick update: the actuator came in and the install looks pretty cut and dry, except for one thing - that stupid, stupid f****n third bolt in the back. I’ve already sacrificed one ratchet to the gods of the Eternal Void Behind the Dash. Is there a trick for accessing it another way I’m not thinking of. It is so tight back there.

I have used a box end ratchet, the size for the short nut or screw driver bits, tape/putty it in, and gotten loose a few screws in tight places

I was able to get the back screw loosened a bit with a low-profile ratchet, but there just wasn't enough space to unscrew it completely, so I ended up taking some tinsnips and just cutting through the back screw. 😂

It's out, blend door is working again.👍🏼 Now I just have to finish getting all of this disgusting residual smoke smell out and scrub the remnants of the adhesive from the [illegal] front window tint the previous idiot I mean owner put in. 😂😬

After pricing a professional detail, I went out and bought an ozone generator on amazon for $99 and gave it a good hour-long blast this morning, including with Max AC on. Hopefully that clears it up.