Pulled off my aircon heater hot/cold selector dial - now doesn't work

[jaws_one]

Hi All,

I have a VS2 97 Exec. I did a stupid thing and instead of referring here I went to install stereo by ear... thought how hard can it be, have done it in other cars before easily.
Essentially what I did is actually pull of the dial that selects warm and cold (then the little spindle inside fell into the mixer unit). I can still select direction for air and fan power. The car has A/C (that doesn't work, no power or gas I think).

I pulled the temp mixer unit out slightly enough to get my hand behind to hold the spindle in place while I pushed the dial back on but there seems to be at least two other cogs that it turns inside and now they are not sitting on the dial and I can't select heat/cold at all. It just spins freely. Now in summer wasn't an issue but it's friggin cold now and a little heat would be good.

Questions are:

Can i pull the mixer out completely and fix this little spindle thing back in place?

Or will I need to replace the entire mixer unit? (Commwreck should have the part for 40 bucks - everything seems to be 40 bucks from there)

Or should I take it to NRMA and get them to fix this, replaced my broken Igntition switch (due to shaft snapping outside Lithgow McDonalds ), my muffler, the air con re-gas, and the flickering headlights when I indicate all at once.....?

Yes she is in the wars but overall a fantastic car.

Any guidance on best action is appreciated.
Thanks guys and girls,
James

[m1lky]

I did the same thing. You can move the lever behind it without too much hassle to go to hot. Just watch you dont burn your hand on the coolant pipe. It's a metal rod directly behind it that goes towards the firewall. Hope this helps

[jaws_one]

Sweet as Milky cheers, was thinking along this vein after reading here to get by for the rest of winter, but am thinking to fix it properly would be better. So stupid of me, it was working perfectly (albeit no aircon)

[m1lky]

Never got that far. I stripped the teeth on the gears so needed a new panel on mine

[jaws_one]

yea, I just found this The complete VR/VS interior illumination replacement & conversion guide guy also has awesome pictures on this link for removing HVAC unit, from his description pulling out the unit seems simple, so will give that a run, hopefully he's right and the hoses are long enough for it to be pulled straight out (seemed a lot of tension when I pulled it last time but perhaps I was too gentle). I'll see if I can get the unit out and put the spindle back in properly...hope i haven't stripped teeth like you say.. we'll see. Will report back, perhaps with pics if I can be arsed.

[jaws_one]

All sorted, HVAC unit comes out easily and all the wires etc are fool proof. Fiddled around with the two cogs for the heat selector inside the HVAC using common sense. Took a bit of fiddling to get the rod sitting back in the right spot so when it moves it doesn't push against things. Now I have hot and cold woo hooo.

[hako]

If that hadn't worked, to get heat simply remove the vacuum hose to the heater tap - this turns the tap on and you have hot coolant thru the heater.