As long as you're careful in how you repair the broken pieces, I don't think you will go wrong in deciding to attempt fixing it yourself. I did mine over a year ago, and so far I have had no problems. Daves69 method looks even better than what I did to fix the broken flapper door. If mine broke again, I would not hesitate to go into it again, and do it his way. Of course it helps that I've done it before and know what I need to do.

Don't forget to carefully check your housing for cracks on the stop tabs that limit the rotation of the coupler.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions.

 

A little side note or two............

I did not remove the third row seat, I just needed to loosen the seat belt nut as it had the trim panel pinched.
I believe I counted 27 screws not including the 6 that the motors are attached with. Only one I gave up on was on the lowest part of the box attaching the bracket just behind the heater core tubes pointing up. Get your mirror out to see it! I was able to spread the box enough without removing this one.

Hope this helps.
DS

 

How much of the main housing did you have to disassemble to get the door out?
Is there a part # for the new coupler?
THANK YOU FOR THE INFO !!!

 

You're going to have to take out every screw that you can, and gently pry apart to halves of the housing. There are some different, hex head type screws that hold the fan housing to the rest of the unit, and I seem to remember there was one screw that was behind the unit that was kind of a bear to reach, I think I used a long phillips head driver, as the hex heads have phillips grooves, too. Remember, the housing was designed to be split and joined when it's fully out of the vehicle. We're doing this with it still installed, and probably at least one fastener still in it, so you'll have to be careful how far you split and stress it.

As Daves69 says, take as many screws out as you can, if there's one remaining, maybe you can get it slightly loose, rather than all the way out. Again, some are going to be somewhat hard to reach. I did not realize you could remove the inner rear cover without removing the 3rd row seat. I took the seat out because I was basically following the shop manual, but if you can simply fold the seat and work around it, so much the better. (But, the seat is pretty easy to take out and re-install, too.) The really good thing is that despite what the shop manual says, you DO NOT have to disconnect the heater core and ac evaporator coil. Just leave all of that connected. When you get the housing screws out and split the halves a bit, you'll be able to see what's going on in there, especially with an inspection mirror. I think I may have used a flexible extending claw pick-up tool to get some of the small pieces out of there.

See my post on page two for a part number. You saw my post with pictures, right? The new coupler is definitely a better engineered part and unlikely to ever break again. But again, the stop tabs molded onto the exterior of the housing may need some reinforcement. Dodge would like to sell you a revised housing, too, but the cost is outrageous and you're back to having to fully remove the unit, disconnecting the water and refrigerant lines. Just fix the door, snap the housing back together, test the rotation of the servo motor (that's how I noticed the stop tab cracks), reinforce as needed and back together. It could probably be done in an afternoon if you needed to, not counting time for the glue to set up on the blend door.

 

Hi there!
70Cuda4Speed this post was really helpful to me. I just want to thank you for this, you make me save some money.

 

Thanks for that, and no problem. I'm glad you were able to save some cash. Hope the fix works for you. This is what the dodgeforum is all about.

 

I just did this repair yesterday on my 2003 SLT. I ordered the part number on the first page from Amazon for $7.43.


I used JB Weld on the blend door. Everything works perfectly now. It was not difficult at all.

 

Water coming out behind passenger rear wheel. Replaced water pump, thermostat , top and bottom hoses. 2001Durango

 

Just did this today. The heat's still weak, but it is working now.

For those who haven't done this, I recommend this kit: https://www.blenddoorusa.com/product...ac-rebuild-kit

These are a perfect fit, and won't break in the future.

 

I have issues with the rear heater unit causing that light on my defrost button to blink incessantly. This, on a 2001 SLT+. and I cant get the compressor to engage to charge the AC (recent engine replacement and computer replacement just before that) Took to dealer (they wouldn't let me borrow the DRB) and they came up with codes I couldn't, about mode door actuator being stuck/bound up, the parameters showed the hot/cold blend door actuator working fine/ it refused to allow the DRB to do the door position recalibration because of this.

yesterday I was in a junkyard and literally RIPPED apart the interior trim on a junker, to see what I was in for.... I removed both rear heat/AC actuators and those adapter pieces, on this junker and the front mode door on the rear hear/AC unit of the junker would not budge either direction/ even with a pair of pliers on that actuator adapter. I did scavenge the actuator adapters and the actuators, looks like the front ones are the same so far.....
I did buy this blend door kit ($150-damn) because I only want to take mine apart once ---whether this is a problem on mine at the moment or not--- being 19 yo and having 260K on it, I ain't pulling this rear heat setup apart again. When I 1st came across this thread like a month ago this kit was $10 less..... and I thought that was too high to pay then...… but having been thru this PITA on 2 2014 Ford 1-ton vans at work, and seeing that Ford gets $200 for ONE blend door that's plastic and identical to the failed one, 2 for $150, and aluminum is still asinine expensive, isn't as much so as the ones on the Fords.
I have never sat in the back of my Durango and never paid attn to whether the rear heat/AC has ever worked in the 6 years I have owned it. .