Improvement in Front HVAC air flow - Luxury Coach Lifestyles
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Old 01-18-2012, 12:41 AM   #1
Richard and Rhonda
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Default Improvement in Front HVAC air flow

I have a unit originally supplied by Frigi Cool out of Dallas. Frigi Cool was acquired by SCS Frigette. Frigi is long gone, and SCS doesn't deal with this kind of business any longer.

The air flow from any of my dash vents or defroster was abysmal. Non existent practically. In addition the fan would speed up dramatically from time to time when I hit a good bump.

I finally got to this one on the list, and I apologize up front for no pictures.

I removed the front console completely. I had to unhook the leveling, rear camera, and some other connections to move it out of the way. Once it was removed I was looking at the snakes nest of large diameter hoses that connect the unit to the AC vents, foot vents, and defroster vents. Like most auto heat control units, the control panel sends vacuum to different vacuum actuators to open and close air control louvers. The opening and closing of louvers controls where the air flows. My biggest problem was that the air came out of all the vents simultaneously, without regard to the button selected on the control panel.

I thought that I would find that the vacuum level was weak or the vacuum actuators were broken. Wrong. What I found was three different problems that all added up to the lack of flow. First, the louvers use soft foam to seal when they shut. The foam was old and wasn't really sealing. A trip to a fabric store and the foam was renewed and some thickness was added where needed. I thought I was finished. When I reassembled the air flow box, I noticed the louvers didn't move freely. Turns out that both if them had parts of the louver that touched the side of the air control box. A few minutes of Dremel tool time fixed that. Then I noticed that the doors didn't completely shut because the stroke of the actuator and the needed stroke weren't matched. So some washers and spacers to correctly position the actuators was in order.

The fan speed issue was caused because the fan motor was grounded to an aluminum plate on the front wall of the coach. I ran a clean and know ground to the motor.

Result.............Holy cow, real air flow. Real air flow out of the vents I choose. It blew my hair back. Wait that's an exaggeration, I don't have any hair.

So, if you are experiencing similar problems on a mid 90s coach, you might want to look into these issues. The air control box was poorly made as it came from the vendor. The issues I saw were not things that developed over time. The good news is that they were easy to correct. Better than new now.
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Richard Rhonda Ty and Alex Entrekin
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Old 01-18-2012, 02:54 AM   #2
tuga
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Way to go Richard, I knew if anyone could figure it out you would.

Are you sure Tom didn't help you!

Just kidding.
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Old 01-18-2012, 04:56 AM   #3
encantotom
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very cool richard. har har

i did redo the vacuum setup on mine. to get the controls to work right.

richard, maybe i could fly you and rhonda to my house for a couple of weeks. with two of us at it, i could get alot done on the coach. we could work in shifts. you during the day and me at nite.

what do you think?

tom
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Old 01-19-2012, 12:51 AM   #4
Richard and Rhonda
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I am sure my employer wouldn't miss me at all. And I don't know if I could slow down enough to take the pictures you do. I always think after I finish a fix that I should have taken pictures along the way.

And Tuga, Tom's fix for the unit on his 90 was the inspiration for tearing into mine.

Of all the components that I have disassembled on the coach, this is the very first one that I consider that Newell used a part that was not the best available.
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Richard Rhonda Ty and Alex Entrekin
1995 Newell # 390 DD Series 60, Allison World Trans
Subaru Outback toad
CoMotion Tandem
Often wrong, but seldom in doubt
Rhonda's chronicle https://wersquared.wordpress.com/
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