Cavalier vent control question

2004 Cavalier. My vent selector stopped working - air only came out of
the dash vents, no defrost, etc. Working from underneath the dash, I
found the control cable was kinked, apparently because of a stuck door.
At least for now, I was able to free the door, by manually pulling on
the cable. So, great. But, in the course of doing that, I broke the
post where the cable attaches to the vent control switch.

My question is, what is the replaceable part? Do I have to replace the
entire "control head" (blower switch, temp selector, vent control, etc),
or can just that one broken switch be replaced? (I'd go to a junkyard
for the parts.) I can see a couple of screws on the vent switch, but
there may be others.

Thanks,
George

"George" > wrote in message
...
> 2004 Cavalier. My vent selector stopped working - air only came out of
> the dash vents, no defrost, etc. Working from underneath the dash, I
> found the control cable was kinked, apparently because of a stuck door.
> At least for now, I was able to free the door, by manually pulling on
> the cable. So, great. But, in the course of doing that, I broke the
> post where the cable attaches to the vent control switch.
>
> My question is, what is the replaceable part? Do I have to replace the
> entire "control head" (blower switch, temp selector, vent control, etc),
> or can just that one broken switch be replaced? (I'd go to a junkyard
> for the parts.) I can see a couple of screws on the vent switch, but
> there may be others.
>
> Thanks,
> George

George... JB Weld is your friend. WW

On Fri, 5 Nov 2010 09:33:12 -0600, "WW" > wrote:

>
>"George" > wrote in message
.. .
>> 2004 Cavalier. My vent selector stopped working - air only came out of
>> the dash vents, no defrost, etc. Working from underneath the dash, I
>> found the control cable was kinked, apparently because of a stuck door.
>> At least for now, I was able to free the door, by manually pulling on
>> the cable. So, great. But, in the course of doing that, I broke the
>> post where the cable attaches to the vent control switch.
>>
>> My question is, what is the replaceable part? Do I have to replace the
>> entire "control head" (blower switch, temp selector, vent control, etc),
>> or can just that one broken switch be replaced? (I'd go to a junkyard
>> for the parts.) I can see a couple of screws on the vent switch, but
>> there may be others.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> George
>
>George... JB Weld is your friend. WW

My understanding is that JBW is no friend of HDPE, which is what I
suspect these parts are. http://jbweld.net/faq.php (polyethelene)

Re PE/PP, as put here,
http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/.../msg00790.html

"They have very little interest in sticking to anything."

The best luck I've had with HDPE is to 'weld' it with a soldering iron.
In this case, the pieces are small enough that I don't think I could do
that.

G

"George" > wrote in message
...
> The best luck I've had with HDPE is to 'weld' it with a soldering iron.
> In this case, the pieces are small enough that I don't think I could do
> that.
>
> G

I havent had any luck with soldering gun welds. There is
an epoxy that, I believe, will work with materials like HDPE.
I used it to repair cracks in a motorcycle mud guard and it
worked fine. Regular fiberglass resin wouldnt begin to stick
to it. I found this by rumbling through the glues and epoxies
at WalMart.. Might be worth a try. Dont remember the name
but it specifies on the label that it is for these types of applications.

hls > wrote:
>I havent had any luck with soldering gun welds. There is
>an epoxy that, I believe, will work with materials like HDPE.
>I used it to repair cracks in a motorcycle mud guard and it
>worked fine. Regular fiberglass resin wouldnt begin to stick
>to it. I found this by rumbling through the glues and epoxies
>at WalMart.. Might be worth a try. Dont remember the name
>but it specifies on the label that it is for these types of applications.

I think any generic epoxy will work if the surface is properly prepared,
and that means roughing it up a little bit with some fine sandpaper and then
priming it with an oxidizer so the surface is no longer waxy. You
may also need to add some reinforcing strips the side of the join if
there is going to be any bending stress on it, because the interface between
the epoxy and the plastic is always going to be weak.

You'll probably do better with a plastic welder or hot glue.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Scott Dorsey" > wrote in message
...
> hls > wrote:
>>I havent had any luck with soldering gun welds. There is
>>an epoxy that, I believe, will work with materials like HDPE.
>>I used it to repair cracks in a motorcycle mud guard and it
>>worked fine. Regular fiberglass resin wouldnt begin to stick
>>to it. I found this by rumbling through the glues and epoxies
>>at WalMart.. Might be worth a try. Dont remember the name
>>but it specifies on the label that it is for these types of applications.
>
> I think any generic epoxy will work if the surface is properly prepared,
> and that means roughing it up a little bit with some fine sandpaper and
> then
> priming it with an oxidizer so the surface is no longer waxy. You
> may also need to add some reinforcing strips the side of the join if
> there is going to be any bending stress on it, because the interface
> between
> the epoxy and the plastic is always going to be weak.
>
> You'll probably do better with a plastic welder or hot glue.
> --scott

Scott, on these hard polymers, I have found that no amount
of surface preparation really gives a good bond when most
"glues" are used. Things like HDPE can be melted and fused,
and if you have proper equipment I am sure that would be
a reasonably good fix.

"Hot glue", if you mean the meltable sticks of poly(ethylene vinyl acetate)
works very well for some things but it too has
its limitations.

Just my $3.50 (Used to be $0.02 before the current administration)