No air through vents

[97ranger4x4]

So I went to turn on my AC yesterday and noticed that no air was coming out of my vents, but it was still coming out of my foot vents and window defroster.

I tried moving the dial to all of the different positions and I still get no air movement out of the vents. I wonder if something got blocked

Thanks.

 

[fordboi415]

You have a vacuum leak, my moms F-150 did the same thing but I have no idea how to check it

 

[irishblessing]

pop open the hood theres a liitle black ball on the plastic piece of fender well on the passengers side you might have to look for it but there should be to hoses coming from it one on either side if theres not look for a dangling hose and plug it back into the hole that should solve your problem

 

[warrior24]

my 92 ranger had the same problem I removed the switch box that has all the controls for the ac and behind it there are 2 wires that get pulled as you move the selector and the clip that hold it in place falls out. I epoxied and zip tied mine in place and now it works.

 

[IRKillroy]

are they vacuum controlled??? what are the years they used vacuum and did they switch to electrical at some point?

 

[97ranger4x4]

Cool i will check out that "ball" I basically took out the glove box and the radio bezel and took the temp, speed, and panel controls out to make sure everything was connected. Everything looked good back there. i was looking at the ford factory service manuals and that basically confused the shit out of me so i may try and have my GF stepdad help me out since he understands electical/vaccume diagrams better than I do.

I know my setup is vaccume controlled but I really couldnt figure out what opens and closes under certain conditions. It sucks because both my roomates and my truck have the same symptoms which means I cant refer to hers to fix mine. But I am sure they both have the same problem.

Thanks for the help again!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The vacuum system defaults to defrost so no matter what your windshield wills stay clean.

Dunno when they switched but my '85 has cables...

 

[97ranger4x4]

So I popped the hood today after work, sure as shit, the plastic ball had two vacuum lines and one was snapped in half!!! I must have broke it when I was changing my wires a few weeks back and never noticed it. So I am going to get some shrink tubing and I am hoping that will work. The tubing is this really narrow plastic stuff that I really dont think I can replace. I will probably put some superglue around the ends of the shrink tubing to seal it off.

 

[97ranger4x4]

Air vents are working now!!! Fixed the line and all is back to normal. Now I just need to figure out whats wrong with my roommates truck!

 

[IRKillroy]

glad to hear everything is working great!!

 

[wickland111]

My 2002 explorer sport is doing the same thing. I checked the lines going to the ball vacuum canister under my passenger fender, checked the lines, and checked the vacuum motor behind my glove box.

When I tested the vacuum canister, It acted like a gate valve. One end allows you to create vacuum, where the other wont hold a vacuum at all. Is this correct?

The lines, is simply tested to see if the held vacuum. They seem fine. Im not really sure which one should hold vacuum and which shouldn't.

I used a vacuum tester kit for all my testing while the vehicle is running and ac is on. When I checked the line that goes on the vacuum motor behind my glove box, the line that goes into the motor was only at 2 lbs when on max ac. Is that enough? When i hook up my vacuum pump and draw about 10 lbs on it ,the motor seems to work fine. Even then though the air doesn't come out of the vents.

Any help would me much appreciated. I am a broke a#$ law student.

Broc

 

[wickland111]

First, let me correct myself as vacuum is measured in inches, not lbs.

Also, I wanted to let you know I fixed the problem today. It was a vacuum line with a pin hole.

After thinking more about it last night, I decided to start at the vacuum tree and move towards the firewall. I checked the redline that goes from the vacuum tree to the vacuum canister. I checked each break of line and connector. It was simply one of these pieces of line. It had a pin hole where it looks like it was rubbing against something in the engine compartment.

I feel dumb as I should have done that first. Those lines should supply roughly 15 inches of vacuum, fyi. Im not sure what it would measure after the canister, I never measured after it as I fixed my problem. But all the way to the canister it should be roughly 15 inches of vacuum when the air is on max ac and at idle.

I hope this helps someone.