Climate Control Fix

[pj67coll]

I've never owned a Benz yet with the awful US style climate control setup. All mine including my 80 116 had the Euro manual sliding levers and knobs to open and close the relevant air flaps and stuff. However I'm well aware of the frustrations the US version involves and as I hope soon to acquire one or two examples I've been considering this topic quite a bit.

There are numerous threads and online resources concerning removal and repair of the heater/air box's and their vacuum pods but I'm always left with the feeling that even if working properly you still have these inaccessible vacuum pods sitting buried in the dash ready to sabotage your system.

Wouldn't it be possible to disconnect all the vacuum related stuff from the pods themselves and just run Bowden cables to each air flap or to the pods that control the flaps? So that air flow can be directed as required merely by pushing or pulling on a knob that has a cable attached directly to that flap. Also you should be able to remove the evil servo completely then and run a line directly to a valve installed in its place to allow heat or no heat as required.

For myself I'd assume all these cables could be routed to the location of the ash tray on the center console. To me it's just wasted space as I don't smoke. So what you are doing in this case is reverting to an all manual system, both for heat and ambient air and air flow direction. For A/C of course the system would work fine with the heater valve closed off.

Any thought's on this concept?

- Peter.