Early Alfetta GT center air vent

[Biba69]

Anyone familiar with this center vent - I'm referring to the cold air flap, not the exterior vents - could you tell me the best way to access it? I'm pretty sure the arm has either come undone or is broken. Also, this came with factory (not retrofitted in the US) A/C.

I have an Alfetta parts book, but it shows a later type of heater and the arm appears to go on the outside of the heater box. After removing the outer dash portion for the two levers (not four), the arm, which appears to be plastic, disappears in a hole behind the lever.

I assume I have to first remove the lower (on the center hump) plastic tray/ashtray/radio, so the housing above it can be dropped down so as gain access to the flap. Correct?

I really don't want to end up having to remove the entire dash, heater, etc. to be able to access it - if for no other reason than this is my daily driver.

I'll be happy to send a photo of the outer dash portion if someone needs to clairfy which one mine is.

Biba

[sidewaysalfa]

I remember your car has the A/C version with 2 levers and the red and blue knobs. I think you are refering to internal center flap that controls the amount of fresh air comming in from the cowel inlet.
I installed this unit on my GT last year (I want to install A/C some day) and I remember that the unit's controls are all internal. I had mine broken appart as it needed some serious maintenance/cleaning.
I think the only way to get the flap reconnected is to remove the heater/AC unit completely. I "think" it can be done without removing the dash. There are 4 studs on the firewall with 4 nuts (8mm socket?) that hold the unit. I did the work with the dash removed and remember thinking that it would be pretty difficult to get to those 4 nuts with the dash in place. Re-installation will be the trick as you need to hold up the heavy unit on the studs while starting the nuts. Oh did I mention that there are 4 fragile plastic flanges on the unit that are now verry brittle. I ended up fabing a metal flange/bracket to spread out the weight because one plastic flanges had broken.
Heck with a helper the dash comes out in about 1/2 hr. And that is a good time to blow out the heater/ac unit to clean out all those leaves, etc. And it is a lot easier to replace those heater hoses while it is out. And you might as well as clean up some of that old wiring, like the CAT TEMP light circuit. And, and, and, and. . . . . . .