01 Durango SLT with rear air. So I have read MANY posts about the rear air flap door issues. Basically...I took my rear heat/ac unit out to try and fix the issue of why is what NOT switching from heat to ac only to find that the white plastic cylinder that the motor slides into and turns had two issues. One issue was the flapper door was broken and laying inside the housing and the "tip" on the white gear was broke off and laying inside the interior down by the carpet. I tried to glue the "tip" back onto the white cylinder gear and it broke immediately after I re-timed the motor and fixed the flapper door. I have read ALOT of issues on this, but how "important" is that "tip" besides the use of stopping the cylinder between the two stop tabs on the housing? The motor now switches the flapper to control the heat/ac but I am not using anything on the cylinder to act as a stopper for the cylinder to turn. Is this bad?

 

Do you still have the parts out? If so, you should take some pics to put up here so anyone else can learn from your write-up. The pics will also show what you're talking about and get answers to your question.

 

Pictures please!

 

i believe that pin is just a saftey to stop it from over-rotating, but a picture would help to confirm that

 

Sorry... I did not take pictures. It was so late at night and I just wanted to get everything back together and get the rear heat working with the colder temperatures coming this morning for my kids that sit in the back. To answer your question... the white "tip" on the gear is a safety stop and according to Dodge... this is a KNOWN failure piece due to the design. Luckily I work alot in timing and sequence of motors and there rotation on gears so I was able to get everything in alignment when I made the repair. It does take some time but you can do it yourself. What you have to do is tkae the motors off the front and rear of the housing. The front motor controls the floor/overhead blower flap and the rear motor controls the heat/AC core/condenser flap. As far as timing the front motor you simply have to activate the FRONT controls that control the front part of the vehicle. Then activate the REAR controls. Wait until the font motor in the rear housing stops rotating then place it in the front "white" cylinder and "help" the cylinder rotate to where the rear flap is in the "center", this is where you feel air coming from overhead and the floor, then reattach the motor. Then... using the rear controls... move the heat/AC controls to the "middle" and wait for the rear motor that controls the heat/AC condenser to stop rotating. Then put the motor back into the "white" cylinder. I did this a couple of times to fine tune the flapper and protect from "over" opening and closing so the door had no stress. It is probably not the mandated Dodge way... but my kids and I are enjoying rear heat/AC for the first time in months and they seem to be in perfect sequence.