cold feet!
 

Well it was down in the 20's this morning, and one of those "only in cold weather problems" came up. I have plenty of heat in the car...problem is it only comes out of the 2 side vents in the dash or the defroster. Nothing in the center vents or the floor vents. Any suggestions(besides wearing warmer shoes)?

Mark

It is not designed to give heat through the center vents, however you should be able to get heat through the floor vents. Do you get heat to the floor when you push the 2nd button (with the up and down arrows)?

If there's no footwell heat when not on defrost, then it's probably a bad vacuum pod on the footwell vent actuator. It's just to the right of the accelerator pedal. When it comes to pod replacement, it's a pretty easy one. Check with a Mity Vac.
A while back I wrote up the instructions on how to replace it. The pod is attached with a bayonet type fitting. Search on my name and footwell pod and the instructions should come up.

I only get heat through the 2 side dash vents when the 2nd button is pushed..nothing on the floor:(

I agree, it sounds like a vacuum pod.

I found your old thread on this.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/82124-footwell-vent-pod-rebuild-tricks.html

Sounds great. I will get the rebuild kit and try it out. Thanks for the help!

Having the same problem here.

I'm wondering if it might be easier to just 'rig' the vent flap to stay open all the time....at least during the cold season.
Any thoughts on taken this route? Is it even possible?

Before you go replacing parts, do some more testing...

I've got the same problem, no heat from floor vents under any situation. I thought it was the vent actuator for the floor vents, but when I tested it, it turned out it was fine! I did however, find a leaking pod, the recirculation/fresh pod. When I disconnected that pod and plugged its line, the floor vents worked!

Get thee a mityvac, and test all the pods you can. when you connect the mityvac to the pod, and pull a vacuum, it should activate, and make something happen. If it looses its vacuum, or doesn't do anything, it has a ripped diaphram, and needs to be rebuilt.

So pull the two kickplates, which should give you access to four of the five pods, the floor vent pod and the defrost pod which are on the driver's side, and the recirc/fresh pod and the main air pod, which are on the passenger side. The center vent pod is a little more hidden, but should be accessible without removing the dash.

You should also test the changeover valves to make sure they are actually changing over. Print out a copy of the Heater/AC Vacuum diagram in the Vacuum Diagrams sticky post in this forum, it shows the vacuum layout, with rough physical positions, and will be a big help.

good luck!

peace,
sam

That sounds great! Thanks for the help. What's a mityvac...where do I get one?

My mityvac came from harbor freight and it works great.

Yes, it's possible. I've seen it done by entirely removing the vacuum pod for the footwell vents and plugging that vacuum line. In that particular case, a cable tie had been attached to the lever for the footwell vents to make it easy to manually open or close those vents.

mityvac, MB diesel owners hero.
 

mityvac, MB diesel owners hero.
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?p=768686&posted=1#post768686

eskimo....thnx. Until the weather warms up and is a little more DIY comfortable...I'll probably just rig the flap to stay open.

how about a 124 (92 300d 2.5)
 

i've got no foot heat. on my old wagon, it was a fairly easy fix. i haven't even looked to see if it is the same set up. is it?

david

quick fix
 

Never did get around to replacing the diaphram, but it still managed to finally get cold out this month. At lunchtime I pulled the vac. line off the footwell pod and stuck a golf tee w/ teflon tape in it. I flipped the linkage open by hand, and whatevers left of the diaphram holds it in place nicely. I got back to work and I could feel all 10 toes!:D :D