For those who want to know what each vacuum motor/actuator does. 1. The one in the passenger footwell controls the door between fresh air and interior recirculated air. The default with no vacuum leaves the exterior door open. 2. The one he disconnected the arm for controls the first door from the blower motor. The door it controls is to divert the air to the main vents with a slight bypass to the defrost vents. Its default with no vacuum is to close the main vents and push air to the defrost vents. 3. The vacuum motor with two lines going to it, next to the one he was talking about in the video, controls the difference between defrost, floor, and then mixed vents. It has two lines to allow different amounts of vacuum to be applied. It defaults to defrost vents when it does not allow vacuum. Therefore if there is a vacuum leak in the HVAC control system it defaults to 1. exterior air 2. main vent door closed 3. defrost/floor door closed pushing all flow to the defrost vents. Causing full function to defrost vents with exterior air pushed across the heater core.

Great video, this just saved my parents almost 1,000 dollars. Ford dealership claims the entire dashboard has to be removed for fix.

The vacuum lines are made of plastic and eventually crack and break. I replaced all of my vacuum lines with rubber lines that I got on Amazon and that fixed the problem. It takes time but is not that difficult, just find the old plastic lines and follow them back to all points of connection and remove them and replace with new rubber tubing. It worked, I now have all vents blowing air.

Nice post. I'm going to try this in the morning. You are right, 90% of the time you want air out the front vents, but the 10% when you need that defroster will save your life. I had to drive without a defroster one night because my blower motor failed. Very dangerous! Fortunately I had some hand sanitizer which contains alcohol. Rubbed it on the inside of the windshield. Prevented fogging and moisture freezing. Made it home safely!

6 weeks. I’ve been driving around for 6 weeks. It’s been over a hundred degrees in Dallas the whole damn time. So easy. So simple. Six weeks.

Thanks for posting. The fix is the actuator is disconnected from the vent actuator arm 3:35 the actuator itself is most likely fine

Mine is a 2005 ,I looked at several videos and for the shape of my van and the fact that my a/c still blows cold. Yours is the best fix . Screw all that vacuum searching, the manual fix is the best.

Thank you! 95 E350 started having the same exact problem last night. I’m going back to AZ tomorrow from Colorado with the kids and there’s NO WAY defrost was going to cool us off 🥵. This is exactly what we need until I can replace that part that’s supposed to move the plastic lever 😎🙏

That worked for me. Thank you so much we are having a record high heat wave I Houston. I hope you are blessed with good fortune.

You’re awesome. Just fixed my issue with that trick. So cool. Thanks!

Thanks for posting this! My normal commuter car died so I was using my cargo van that had this problem forever but it was never a huge issue because mine did a split between the defrost and the floor vent so on long trips it wasn't too bad which was mostly what I was using it for. But now it's a heat wave and I'm using it to drive to and from work and was getting home in the hottest part of the day soaked in sweat. I couldn't get the vacuum actuator tab off the switch so I just unscrewed it and pushed the entire actuator as far towards the windshield and drivers side as I could and it works great now. I can do the semi-proper check switch and accumulator relocation fix when it's cooler outside!

You're awesome my guy! Saved me a lot of money so thank you!

Thank you so much you just solved all my problems.

Worked, Thank you 97 E-150 tada

I bought a new vacuum canister and pulled the vacuum line out from the inside of the firewall. The check valve and t fitting came out too it looked like the leak was a dry rotted tube that went to the canister… it crumbled. So I just ran a wire through the firewall toward the engine until I could see it and then pulled the new vacuum line through.

Thanks so much this saved me time and money

Today you are my hero

Thank you so much for your video I've had the same problem in a 350 Ford van and it worked like a charm.

So freaking easy!! 🤣 Thanks for the easy hack man!

It worked for me 😊 thank you thank you!!

Thanks for the video!

Please note: What I pointed out in this video is more of a “bypass” than a true fix in order to avoid an expensive and time consuming tear down. What I am proposing gets the job done with no cost. The actuator that I point out in the video that I was going to replace actually worked fine upon bench testing so the vacuum problem is more complicated and would require a tear down of the system to find the leak. Hope my solution helps.

4:00 This was bad design by Ford. If, instead of the whole vacuum line and reservoir B.S., they let the user control the flapper by a MANUAL SWITCH, this thing would never break. But nooo, they HAD to make it complicated! Its an air flow flapper, why make it so convoluted?

Hey very good job and very good explication i have tha seme problems with my van tha air pot's to coming from outside its hot ....pot's coming cool air

Nice video. I am working on it.

Thanks 👌👌👌 Very much appreciated 🙏 🙏🙏🙏

So easy. Thanks.

This would fix mine - if I push the arm over it does switch it - but how did you get the metal arm off with the circular plastic in the way?

Holy shit I love you

Yep, that’s why I was glad to find this hack. Engineers will have you taking dash out to fix which is aweful!!!

The ball is bad on top of condenser run a new line from under the hood to the black line under the floor and it will fix it and it will work with the control

OMG! Thank you!!!

Awesome. I didnt realize there was an access panel there

Gracias por tu video fue de mucha ayuda thank you appreciate

I've been running this 'bypass' fix on my van for around 3 years. one thing to note the air intake under the passenger footwell defaults to fresh air intake. so when motor is under load and ac on max ac and the vacuum decreases the fresh air intake door will open. this does become slightly annoying as my area has a lot of diesel trucks so the fumes get sucked into the cab.

2008 e350 same problem try this tomorrow. Thanks

Thank you!!

How do you reattach the lever? It does not go on easily.

On my Ford e 250 2000. I don't have the plastic piece to move. However when I push it in the air comes out.

this is one of those things where you can get in worse then when you started i m thinking / have air for now . but will hurt resale when i tell them just open the door and flip the broken little white arm. 2006 E250 52000 miles on it.

thanks for showing this i found my issue but you didnt show how to take the lever off the white part can you show how you did that

Awesome

Know anything about Rear door locks?? Ty

I have a 95 van and noticed a vaccine line under hood that's off I wonder if that's causing my vent not to come on but thanks I'll check that out

did not say how to disconnect the white plastic arm off the Actuator arm now arm is broken. please make a vid an how to fix the broken arm.

and where to find the part?

Is there a trick to get the lever off?, I don't want to break anything.

Part 1? What fixed it?

What is the name of the part

👍

no worked- ?? Help me? New check valve, new actuator, new,bypass regulator no dry rotted ,😅 s.c - 2 year bypass - ?????

Just got my truck out the shop. They was trying to charge me 1,400

Did you ever diagnose the problem? And find an easy fix other than what you did here?

Tengo ese problema en la ford E 250 ecoline lo kiero ver.en español

Este video lo kiero en español