polo1134

Question 1: Vent door on interior firewall is open a few inches. AC/Heater controls were all off when I started interior tear down. Shouldn't this door be closed when climate control is not in use? When driving the car in the past I noticed exhaust, engine smell and not sure if this could be one of the causes for the odor.



Question 2: I have two disconnected wires (yellow circles), near manual headlight controls under steering wheel. Do these wires need to be attached to the rear prongs on the back (red circles)? Previous owner had speaker wires soldered to the prongs and running to the rear of the car to aftermarket speakers.

Any help will be appreciated.

Cool bean

This relply addresses hvac only.

I'm in the middle of an interior and engine restoration. Other more experienced folks will weigh in but here's what i learned so far:

That door being partially open is not cause of engine smell source. Fixing the engine smell in cabin and cabin heat is multi-part problem.
The first source is to make sure gaskets on hood at cowl are good. This keeps enginne bay heat and smell out of cabin.
Related is the cowl inlet, which is a vac actuated door on right side of cowl above passenger feet. Test actuator with hand pump. Make sure flapper closes all the way. There's other posts about making sure this door seals. (If ac car, this flapper is closed in max ac mode.)
Check shifter boot cover (if auto trans.) This is big source of cabin heat and fumes.

This answer isnt complete, but is a start. Hopefully someone will weigh in on whether that hvac door hould be closed all the way and what setting closes it.

jnb5101

The two wires attach to what appears to be a very old potentiometer that was used to control volume/balance on a radio. Not GM equipment.

polo1134

So the dial (potentiometer) is not something that came with the car? My AIM book is in storage and will be getting it this weekend to investigate the vent door and wiring.

Any other thoughts about the interior vent door on the firewall?

DUB

YES.

This door is CORRECTLY positioned IF you have the system off and the engine NOT running.

This 'door' in question is controlled by a vacuum actuator pod....and it has two hoses going to it. One on each side. SO the position you see now is it in the neutral state..as it was designed to be in.

If you crank the engine and the vacuum is working to your controls...you will see that this door can move IN and out when requested...becasue it has a hose going to each side of the actuator pod.

The MOST important thing is the white/yellowish part that is screwed to the door....if it is BROKEN...the door will fail to operate correctly.

AS for your oil smell..your hood weatherstrip that seal the top of the plenum area can be bad along with ANY holes in the firewall due to bad grommets, etc.

DUB