Before I removed the actuator in my Camry, I confirmed that it was the source of the tapping sound I mentioned before and I could see the lever from the actuator couldn’t advance the position of the air baffle. So the problem was either the motor worm gear was busted or some of the teeth were missing among the other gears. After removing the actuator, I confirmed that the baffle could be moved without significant effort. Since assumptions are too often the root of bad decisions, I opened the actuator to confirm my assumption and discovered that I was wrong. The gears were fine. The stepping motor worked fine. What was wrong was where the PCB disk made contact with the four springing arms from the signal controller wires. The circuit couldn’t close because the contacts had been separated due to the buildup of old and drying lubrication over the span of fifteen years. After cleaning and added a bit of lube on the disk, reassembled all of the parts, closed the actuator, installed it and started the car (and drove to town and back); No more annoying sounds. I’d like to claim success, but now it appears that the baffle is stuck in one position and only hot air is getting through into the cab. My guess is that when I put everything back together, I didn’t set the actuator arm at the correct angle position exactly where it supposed to be. For now, it’ll wait until I have the time and at some point, I’ll buy a new actuator. I just thought that you folks might get a kick out of this story. Charles.
Tuesday, April 16th, 2019 AT 11:49 AM