Got a cup holder stuck in the AC Ducts...HELP!

[mpire]

Ok, so first of all its a 1997 Ford Ranger with the 2.3. Not sure that even matters.

So the blend door broke, its a common problem. So I cut a hole in the airbox to get a look at it, and I was driving around like that for a while.

Well, I was using one of the cup holder insert liner things to keep the door swung over to close off the heater core. Well, my friend was in the car and kicked it and it popped into the airbox and disappeared forever it seem.

I ended up replacing the blend door with the one that has the metal tab and then just closed it up and didn't think much about it.

Well, now that its 1000 degrees outside, I really could use full force on the dash vents, and it appears that its still blowing on my feet as well.

So I am thinking that the cupholder is jamming the door that sends air to the floor or the dash. I get air from both vents.

All the cooling parts are new, compressor, expansion valve, etc. It blows ice cold, but it just doesn't blow out the dash at full force.

So any ideas on where to look/grab, inspect etc to try and get that stupid cupholder out?

I see lots of diagrams, but nothing really explains where that door is or how I could go about getting to it.

 

[cvar]

Try the climate control docs in here: http://visualbits.net/Car Stuff/Ford Ranger 1993-1999/

 

[mpire]

Your link doesn't quite work.

 

[Snoranger]

Going by your pic, I'd say it's stuck in the floor/panel door.

Switch to floor setting, drive into a sweeping right turn as hard as you can (Like a jughandle... Note to everyone not from NJ, jughandles are good for something! ), and switch it to panel 3/4 of the way through the turn. If that doesn't work, pull dash HVAC box (or just pull the dash and cut the box open.) I can have the dash out in 20 minutes on a '97... It's not that bad.