Are there foot heating vents in my 83 300D? And if so, why don't mine EVER turn on?

It's cold here. I'd like my feet to be warm, not my dried-out eyeballs!

What do I have to do, route some dryer hose from the dashboard vents down to my feet?

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Aaron
'84 300D 267,000 - Running WVO - Rice Bran Oil - Mmmmmm, fishy...
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Yes there are footwell vents. You have either a bad vacuum pod at the vent actuator, a bad switchover valve or a defective heater control. Most likely a bad vacuum pod. It's to the right of the accelerator. It is visible once the under dash panel is removed. It can be replaced by working on it from both footwells. It has a bayonet type fitting. A plastic latch must be pushed in and the pod turned to remove it. If you do a search on my posts, I posted instructions how to replace it about a year ago.
Test the pod by putting a Mity Vac on it and see if it actuates with vacuum. There are rebuild kits and new pods available from George ?????.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

There are foot vents, I have found mine not to put out quite as much heat as I would like. Both driver and passanger side flaps are controled with one actuator, I would recemend you check it. Its on the driver side behind the center councel, easy to access with the under dash cover off (easy to do). Theoretically they should always be on when the climate control is in use.

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Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

It is my understanding that the foot well vents are not actuated when the heater is on defrost. (far left button). They should be actuated in all the other positions except 'off'.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

grr you clicked the button before I did and beat me to it, yes your right, every mode except defrost and off.

__________________
Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

Ouch.. Those actuators are about $50. Any chance of rebuilding one, or just leaving it stuck open?

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Aaron
'84 300D 267,000 - Running WVO - Rice Bran Oil - Mmmmmm, fishy...
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RG2098 I have eye balling your avatar. Is that your car purchased from E Bay in the last year ? It had 211K on it and was from Texas. Same car ? I came very close to bidding on that car my 85TD is the same color. It looked very good from the pictures.

If you really want to do it on the cheap, you can simply remove the vacuum actuator entirely, and then connect something to the mechanism so that you can manually open and close the vents. I've seen it done by attaching a plastic cable tie to the lever where the actuator would connect, and then allowing the "tail" of the cable tie to extend into the passenger footwell area a little bit. It needs to be stiff enough to be able to push and pull on the mechanism, but a fairly modest cable tie is enough to do this.

I can take no credit for invention of the above trick; it's just the way my 300D was when I bought it. I've since replaced the actuator.

By the way (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong here), I don't think the footwell vents are always open when the automatic climate control is on. I think they're open when the ACC is trying to blow warm, and closed when it's trying to blow cold. I think the center vents are just the opposite.

Try this:

http://www.autoluxmbz.com/

Louis.