is there any special way to put it in with the door closed
Happy New Year! I, sadly, did run it without the door as it was so far out of the range - it was in the center position and the door was all the way to the cold side due to the dashpot forcing it down. (Default mode?) I figured I would just let it move to the cold side and slide it on. However, it just banged against the hard stop on the module. I can move it back with a battery to the center position. The position sensor seems to be working just fine.Do not run it not connected to the door as this will run it beyond its normal working range and destroy it. Maybe it just needs to be recalibrated. Go to the rear fuse box and pull the HVAC-B fuse for about 10 seconds and put it back in. Then turn the key to RUN but don't start and don't touch anything on the HVAC until it has finished recalibrating the actuators.
If you have to replace it, If it doesn't go on the door shaft, rotate the actuator onto the shaft until it engages it and then turn it back to the position to allow you to put the screws back in. Run the recalibration again.
I appreciate the reply. It is so hard to work on given the location and that darn metal bracket in the way, but I'll give it another go tomorrow. Are there sensors attached to the doors as well? I can see the actuators working more like servos with internal potentiometers for feedback control.It may have been damaged or was outside the range of movement of the door and was possibly damaged if it was at that extreme end of the range when you installed it. You can try doing the relearn again while it's installed and see if it works.
Happy New Year! I, sadly, did run it without the door as it was so far out of the range - it was in the center position and the door was all the way to the cold side due to the dashpot forcing it down. (Default mode?) I figured I would just let it move to the cold side and slide it on. However, it just banged against the hard stop on the module. I can move it back with a battery to the center position. The position sensor seems to be working just fine.
Did I really damage it or can I try again and do what you wrote above?
It's the heat control actuator - driver's side. Always cold. I have a new one and I am fighting the installation procedure. I did take the old one apart for fun. I work with controls systems so this was interesting.I don't see a posting describing exactly what your issue was/is and which actuator you are dealing with.
Which actuator are you working with?
Is it a new part or existing part?
Have you ever opened up the actuator where you can see the plastic gears and so on? If so it is imperitive you do not remove and relocate any of the gears inside without the specific knowledge of how they MUST be properly indexed/aligned with each other (assuming you are working with an original designed part). Using the original design this can be done BUT you MUST know how to do it properly or it will never work right.
It's the heat control actuator - driver's side. Always cold. I have a new one and I am fighting the installation procedure. I did take the old one apart for fun. I work with controls systems so this was interesting.
Thanks. I will double check the part number. I did get a few different ones at the same time (parts cannon philosophy 😺), but it is possible I grabbed the wrong one.So assuming you have the original designed actuator, and having seen the insides with a background in controls you likely recognized the geared potentiometer of sorts that engages the final drive gear. That needs to be at it's center when the drive gear is also at the center of its' movement. There are a few images depicting this on the web including this site here. Some users have measured resistances to determine the center but it usually is good enough to just visually follow the images posted.
I have seen an aftermarket actuator where they incorporated the potentiometer (or equivalent) into the final drive gear, eliminating the possibility of a mis-alignment.
Since a great number of these actuators are physically the same one must be certain they are using the correct part number to start with for their year and style of control system, manual or automatic. For example the passenger side temperature mixing actuator will readily fit at the drivers side temperature mixing actuators' location, but it will never work correctly. The circuitry is different. One sides positional counts increase for hotter air and the other sides counts decrease for hotter air.