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Heater Treater Blend Door Repair

Heater Treater Blend Door Repair

1999 Jeep Cherokee XJ

Janice’s Jeep Chreokee has had trouble regulating the temperature in the cabin. Eventually the warm / cool knob made no difference at all. It was cold all the time.

I remembered the previous experience of pulling the HVAC box to replace the heater core. That was a job I do not care to repeat. I also remembered that I had a lot of trouble getting the blend door to sit properly in its hinges when I reassembled the box.

I first checked the actuator and saw it moved in response to the knob on the dash. I had had trouble with my GMC Suburban that turned out to be the HVAC controller. Since the actuator was moving but the temperature was not changing, I knew something had to be wrong with the blend door.

A quick Google search showed this to be a common problem on the 97 to 01 Jeep Cherokees. The door is plastic and will break. Once I got mine out, I found it was indeed broken where the drive actuator engages it.

While searching for solutions, I found HeaterTreater.com. They offer a metal replacement blend door along with a procedure that allows the door to be replaced from the foot well without removing the box. At first, I thought the $119 price was high but it sounded better than removing the box again. Especially since the Freon has to be removed to pull the box.

I put the kit on my Paypal account and waited. It was shipped the same day I ordered but it did not arrive until the following Monday. So much for Priority Mail.

I borrowed my Dad’s Dremel kit as recommend in the instructions. The kit came with a cutting blade that looked like a drill bit. Dad’s kit had one similar but shorter so I used his instead.

I removed the passenger seat to get access. I was surprised that it is held in my SAE fasteners rather than metric. Janice had previously removed the actuator. That was the most time consuming part of the job. The actuator is held in place by three screws with 8mm heads. (Not two Phillips screws as stated in the instructions.) Two are almost impossible to access. I used a short socket on a ¼ inch drive ratchet. Even with that I had to pull the carpet back to get enough room.

I cut out the template from the instructions. It is a nice pattern and well thought out. I would not make the hole any different after seeing inside. At first, I could not find a way to transfer the pattern onto the black box to make the cut. It was very difficult to see in the dark floor board and then was little room to get a light in there with me.

My final solution was to transfer the pattern onto a piece of the provided silver tape. They sent plenty. I then stuck the tape to the box and used that as a guide to cut along.

I had not used the Dremel before or used a drill bit as a cutting tool. It was very messy and I would advise goggles or a face shield. Regular safety glasses don’t provide enough protection as the plastic chips fly everywhere and there is not much space between your face and the cutting. After some experimenting, I found it best to make several shallow cuts rather than trying to plunge in and make the cut all at once.

I made a pretty messy cut but was able to get the section cut out properly. As they note in the instructions, it does not have to be neat as it will be covered by tape when you are done anyway.

With the section removed, I could see my blend door hanging at an odd angle. It was not seated in the upper pivot point. At this point I considered putting it back in place and returning the Heater Treater Door. However, upon closer inspection I saw where it was broken. I was able to get it out without making the additional cut noted in the instructions. I guess I was lucky as they said.

Next I took a close look at the replacement door and compared it to the original. There are some minor differences in the shape. The major difference is in the material of construction however. The original is flimsy plastic and the replacement is metal covered in foam. The replacement also has a removable axle to allow it to be inserted and removed without separating the box halves. All the stressed parts are made of steel or aluminum. It looked very strong.

Putting the door in place took me several tries. The top has to fit in the pivot point at the top of the box. The instructions describe the procedure but it took me several attempts before it popped into place. Then it promptly fell out and I had to do it all over again.

The most difficult part of the whole procedure was then putting the little nylon washer in place. I had a very difficult time finding a way to position my hands to get the washer placed under the shaft and over the hole without letting the door slip out of the upper pivot. I am not sure how I eventually did it, but I finally got it all in place.

The axle shaft will fit in two ways only one of which is correct. I hooked up the actuator to the wire again and rotated it to the centering mark on the actuator by turning the hot cold knob on the dash. I removed the wire again and slipped the axle shaft into the actuator. I then carefully raised the actuator and shaft into the hole and wiggled the door to let it slide down on the axle.

I then rotated the actuator to align the screw holes and put in the one screw that is easy to get to. I reattached the wire and tested the actuator. The door moved nicely from one end to the other.

I then sealed up the hole. I tore two pieces of tape and placed them on the bottom of the cut out piece. I then pressed the cut out into the hole and pressed down the tape on either side. It does not look perfect, but you can’t see it unless you lay in the floor anyway.

I then let Janice put back the other two screws holding the actuator. I then reinstalled the seat. She will now have heat for holiday traveling. She now just has to clean up all the black plastic shavings. I even had them in my ears.

Overall, I found the Heater Treater well worth the price. The instructions were very clear and easy to follow. The template was just the right shape to make the repair. Cutting the box sure beats removing the box. See www.HeaterTreater.com for more info. Allow about two hours to make the repair.

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Food Is Good F.I.G. Cleveland, Tennessee

Food Is Good or F.I.G. for short is a new Southern Bistro in Cleveland, Tennessee. I found out about it through a friend on Facebook and then researched to see if they had a Facebook page for more information. On their Facebook page I also found a link to their website with their menu and hours.

In late October I finally had the opportunity to go eat at Food Is Good, which is located at the corner of Stuart Road and Old Tasso Road next to Jumpin’ Junction. My friend and I were warmly greeted before we even walked to the door. We were quickly greeted by our waitress and seated promptly.

Our waitress handed us a plain black and white printed menu and to my disappointment they were out of the Roast Beef for the day. I instead chose the fried chicken with mashed potatoes and turnip greens. For dessert I had the peach cobbler served with ice cream.

I have to say the food was absolutely awesome. All the food was very flavorful, especially the turnip greens, they were the best I have ever eaten!

Our waitress often checked on us and refilled our water glasses. She even encouraged us to take the menus to share with our friends and family. My friend had the fried chicken sandwich with the seasoned fries and absolutely enjoyed her meal as well. I had the opportunity to try some of the fries and they were very delicious.

The F.I.G. Southern Bistro has great food, but be prepared for the prices. For both meals for my friend and I as well as dessert for both of us and gratuity the cost was $35. As great as the food was this will be a place I might visit every now and then.  I will definitely recommend to others in the Cleveland area if they are looking for a place to eat real southern home cooked food this is definitely a place to consider.

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Daily Driving XJ vs Talon

Driving a sports car again.

For the last six or seven years my daily driver has been a Jeep Cherokee. Now that I have started driving my Eagle Talon again I have noticed several differences.

First, I had no idea how rough the roads had gotten. In the Jeep I just drive over the sped bumps, manhole covered, pavement transitions and others inconsistencies. In the Talon, I have to be ever watchful for these places or I get a resounding jolt as the suspension bottoms and jars my teeth. While the ride in the Talon is firm, its biggest problem dealing with the every day road conditions is lack of travel.

Another issue is parking. Compared to the Jeep, the door son the Talon are really long. And due to the lower seat height, they are more difficult to get in and out of. I have to park where I have plenty of room to open the door and get out.

Also due to the long nose and low clearance, I have to be ever watchful for tall parking bumpers. I have already scraped the bumper cover a couple of times. I can’t just roll up until I feel it stop like in the Jeep. Also, in the Jeep I could just drive over it if I felt the need. Not so in the Talon.

The power and handling of the Talon make driving in traffic much more interesting. In the Jeep I am usually content just to pick a lane and patiently go with the flow. However, In the Talon, I know a simple blip of the throttle with get me to the other lane and quickly past the car in front of me. I am much less patient in traffic. Also there is something about being pushed back in to the seat as the turbo boost builds that is addicting.

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Magic Mike

Since the movie Magic Mike came out in movie theaters I was curious about it but not enough to go watch it. I had some family and friends go see the movie and they thought it was good. I figured though it may have been because Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum are in it.

Then my sister asks me if I would return a movie to Red Box since I live in the city. It turns out it was the Magic Mike movie. Of course she asks me if I have seen it and I tell her no. She tells me if I want to see it I am welcome to watch it then return it for her, but she warns me to make sure the kids are not around when I am watching it.

I definitely agree that this is NOT a movie for children, much less teenagers to see. The movie was good, however there was a lot more sexual innuendoes that I expected for the movie. The biggest surprise was one penis scene. I would say there was more crotch grabbing in this movie that probably would have put Michael Jackson to shame. Expect a lot of sexually explicit talk and nudity as well.

It almost seems as if the movie was hanging by a bare thread with its rating though. If you are open minded and into movies that have some great looking guys then this is a movie you will probably like watching, without kids around.

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2012 Fall Crawl

2012 Fall Crawl

With my new job, my time commitments are tight. So, I made a last minute decision to attend the XJ list Fall Crawl. That meant I did not have time to prep my trailer and my Jeep. I decided to borrow Jennifer’s XJ which had until recently been her daily driver.

I made the assumption it was ready to drive and just spent the time unpacking her stuff and packing in my camping gear. Having grown accustomed to packing a Suburban, I had to rethink some choices when packing the smaller XJ. The 33 inch spare took up a lot of room even wit he seat folded down. Since I was traveling alone, I used the front seat space for a few soft items like my sleeping bag and backpack.

I left early Friday morning. I made it to the camp in Harlan just as the guys who arrived Thursday night were waking up. I aired down and disconnected the sway bar. I then unloaded the camping gear and set up the tent. I then took my chair to the camp fire and caught up with everyone I had not seen in a while.

After lunch, we lined up and headed up the mountain. I was surprised to see that part of trail 45 is now closed and we were forced to use the trail 48 bypass. Even with the bypass, getting up the hill is still a bit spooky in a couple of places.

At middle fork, we took a look at Tailgate. There was a huge buck deer looking back at us. It just stood there staring at us as we investigated the climb. Only after Josh restarted his XJ and turned p the hill did the big deer slowly wander away. The wet leaves proved too slippery to get on onto the bottom of the trail which looked pretty unforgiving further up. So, we turned and headed up trail 15 to the left toward the helicopter pad. After exploring the remains of an abandoned earth mover, we ventured further east to the huge plateau that we found a few years ago. There was still snow in several places and I chucked a couple of snowballs.

A couple of XJs were low on fuel so we split in to two groups. While one group headed to Evart for fuel, I led the others on a round about way to Lower Rock garden. We took trail 15 back to middle fork and then took the other side of 15 up slip and slide and then up the next big hill. Slip and slide was pretty dry but the second longer hill was pretty slick. I was very happy with how well Jenny’s XJ climbed in the slippery mud. Also her new Procomp shocks did very well at controlling the front axle over the rock outcrops.

Some of the newer participants had some trouble at first as they did not realize how aggressive they need to hit the bottom of the climb to be able to carry speed to the steep part. After a couple of tries every one made it up.

We then made our way to the lower rock garden. We played around there for a while until the others caught up. It was pretty dark by the time we headed back to camp. We went back along the easier trial 12 and 20 back to camp. Going down 45 was pretty exciting as the switchbacks took a careful line to drop into without feeling tippy.

Back at camp we made our individual meals and swapped stories. As usual, the stars were extremely bright on top of the mountain far away from light pollution.

After a chilly night we headed up the mountain again. We decided to try the far west side of the part as one of the county officials had suggested. He told us that some of the ATV trails were OK for our size Jeeps. We navigated our way across the park making only one wrong turn before we got to a confusing spot and took time out for lunch. I used the manifold to warm some hot pockets which were very tasty on the cool clear day.

We made our best guess at which trail to take and ventured on. Not far in we found a spot a bit too narrow for an XJ. A fallen tree was blocking one side of the trial. Josh used his XJ like a bull dozer and moved the log aside. However he got hung up backing out and Dean had to give him a tug to get free.

After a long while of continuously going down we decided this was not taking us where we wanted to go. We could see the Harlan High School below us. Eventually we found a place to turn all the rigs around and made the long climb back out. We took another narrow trial toward the southern part of the park. Again we encountered a tree blocking the road and Josh again pushed it out of the way.

There was one particularly challenging rock that took some maneuvering to get around but generally the trail was uneventful. We were all glad to be of the narrow trail by the end. We stopped at 4 poles overlook and enjoyed the view.

Next we decided to try some trials we had not been on before. We turned up Fuqarwe and then onto Fly Trap. Neither proved to be much of a challenge. We then made our way along 12 to the unnamed rock garden.

We gain split into two groups with one group taking Frankenstein and the others going to Little Stadium. The group on Frankenstein had some excitement as Dean broke a hub and Frosty took a tumble. We all met back up on trail 12 and headed back down. We made it to camp just about dark.

Frosty fired up his grill and tossed on some juicy rib eye steaks. Potato boats surrounded the cooking surface as well. Once it was all cooked, the conversation died down and was replaced with grunts, oohs and compliments to the chef.

After a nice dinner and some story telling I retired to the tent and slept very well. I woke early the next morning and packed my gear. At the bottom of the hill, I aired up using the camp compressor. After hooking back up the sway bar, I pointed the red Jeep south basking in the memory of a nice relaxing weekend.