Some of you guys might remember my thread about having to make a decision on which vehicle to buy. Well, I decided to go with the GC. It's an '02 Overland and I'm lovin' it.
But anyway, on to the topic at hand. As with any used car, this one came with some....."quirks." The driver's side blend door is broken, as are the seat heaters and the lights that illuminate the transmission bezel seem to have failed. So I've taken matters into my own hands rather than trusting the stealerships to do it right. (I've had some bad experiences) The trans light and seat heater are projects I'll tackle later on, but for right now I thought I'd share my fix for the blend doors.
This unfortunately only applies to those WJs that have had the driver's side door fail. I found that even though the door was broken off of the shaft, I could still get it to move upwards by turning the input gear just right. Needless to say I took the actuator off and put it in a safe place for later when I do the HeaterTreater fix. I just don't feel like cutting into the box just yet.
So here's the deal. All you need for this is a small drill bit, or Xacto knife in my case, a similar sized screw and a screwdriver.
First, remove the actuator motor as shown here.
Next, using the drill or knife, make a hole in the housing about an inch from where the blend door will be in its "up/heat" position. Now all you have to do is rotate the blend door up and insert the screw and the blend door will rest on the screw when there isn't enough air pressure to hold it up, thus, giving you heat. All you have to do in the summer is just take out the screw. Pretty simple. This is just a temporary fix for me, but I'm sure this will last a pretty long time if it needs too. The best part is, it only takes a couple minutes to do, and there aren't any moving parts to worry about. Hope this helps some guys out there.
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