How to: rebuild your dash valves

[illest]

Well now that my Dime has become my daily driver its time to focus the interior. The first thing I wanted to tackle was finding the leaks that keep flooding my floor pans. So I broke out my hose and found the most of the water was coming in, through, and down my vents. I removed the dash and finally the vents and after inspecting them its was obvious that they were toast. So here is what I did about it.

Old vent:

 

After removing the old vent separate it from the piping, be careful of the plastic bushing.

 

Then squeeze the vent to free the valve from the two holding pins.

 

then remove the retaining clip from the arm.

 

with the arm free you can now remove the plastic bushing.

 

then pry out the three plastic bushings from the valve.

 

next clean your valve and lever.

 

you can then paint your parts, then I chose to use some roofing rubber to replace the worn out foam. Just trace your valve and cut out a slightly larger circle. Be sure to add the indentations they are used as a guide for a line you need to cut.

 

then attach the new rubber (or what ever you decided to use) to the painted valve, I used think double sided tape but you could use glue.

then I also decided to add an extra piece of rubber to the vent piping to cover the where the arm goes through, just large enough to cover the hole and I cut a slit through it to allow the arm to go through. (attached with more tape)

then just reassemble, install, and enjoy your dry cabin.

[mklotz70]

Nice write up. :)

 

Those pieces would be pretty easy to draw in CAD and convert to pdf for others to download as templates. They could also be recreated by Gasket Specialties on Airport Way if you wanted a bunch of them. :)

[Skib]

So I broke out my hose and found the most of the water was coming in, through, and down my vents.

 

dont forget to clean out the drains in the cowl area.

these failing to drain is whats going to cause the water to get into your vents.

 

theres a black plastic tube on each side that runs behind the fenders

and one in the middle that drains strait down at the engine bay/firewall

[illest]

thanks, I forgot to mention that was the first thing I did.

[Laecaon]

Yea, I was gonna say, I had my hose on full right into the cowl, I couldnt get the water level to rise to those vents.