1966 Lincoln Continental A/C Issue

[frasern]

Emanuel; If you want this other box I have, I will send it for shipping cost, but my gut tells me that letting them sit idle for years, leads to the vacuum ports drying out. It may work if you spray silicon lube into every port, lots of it, then let the vacuum suck out the excess.
Other than that, you may have to carefully di-sect one and see what you can do yourself, it sounds like the electrical side is fine, just the vac. servos are failing. With a vacuum pump and gauge, you may be able to identify which servo is not holding, and swap out that part from another.

[Emas9420]

Emanuel; If you want this other box I have, I will send it for shipping cost, but my gut tells me that letting them sit idle for years, leads to the vacuum ports drying out. It may work if you spray silicon lube into every port, lots of it, then let the vacuum suck out the excess.
Other than that, you may have to carefully di-sect one and see what you can do yourself, it sounds like the electrical side is fine, just the vac. servos are failing. With a vacuum pump and gauge, you may be able to identify which servo is not holding, and swap out that part from another.

I agree, i was hoping on not having to do that.. but i guess i have no choice.. sucks that no one is fixing these anymore.. not the people i contacted at least.
and i am afraid of getting yet ANOTHER box and it having the same issue :/ i kind of want to fix just one and have it working for a long time. I'm sure all of them are the same, few months of use and they start failing. If i can't find a fix though, i will DM you for that box. The first box you sent me worked perfect but i think it got the same electrical issue as my original one. This new one i found worked fine but seems now to be a vacuum issue. We will see.. does anyone have an email for Blair farmer I tried using one i had but no reply. He's my last hope.

[frasern]

Jason at Lincoln addict is friends with Blair, you could ask him.

[TonyC]

There is something I thought of seeing the responses and want to elaborate on, just to help shed a better light. I give this from experience I had when I was tracking down the cause of my wonky heat issue 3 years ago. I discovered that one of my vacuum servos was blown out (not the solenoids in the main box, but the ones that directly operate the flaps), so I had to replace it. It didn't cure my problem, but I knew it was a necessary job to do anyway.

It's possible that it may not be the smart-box at all, but one or more of the flap servos; the symptoms you described do sound suspiciously like a malfunctioning vacuum servo. Those vacuum servos do in fact eventually fail; so I think your next step ought to be to check every servo the system has...yes, even that one deep in the body that operates the Fresh/Recirculate flap. How to do that is simple: Disconnect the hose from the servo, and connect a vacuum pump to it. Apply at least 10" vacuum to the servo. If it holds, then the servo is fine; if it does not hold or even reach 10", the servo is not fine and needs replacing. Two (1 for AC/Heat flap, and one for Heat/Defrost flap) are accessible from under the dash, one (the big blending one) in the engine bay, and one deep inside the starboard-side front wheel well (the Fresh/Recirc one and the most irritating one to get to...but see next paragraph). If my guess is right, the servo setups are the same in all three HVAC options, just a matter of getting the exact replacement(s) for the exact flap(s) affected.

If the Fresh/Recirc servo is blown, it's a bear to replace; not complicated, but very hard to reach. Diagnosing it, however, should be fairly easy: Disconnect its vacuum hose at the first accessible spot, which actually may be at the smart-box below the brake booster, and connect the hose to your vacuum pump and apply 10"...and that it reaches and holds.

While you're diagnosing the servos, also inspect the conditions of their supply hoses, particularly the ends. They can split, which will also cause those symptoms.

---Tony

[Emas9420]

There is something I thought of seeing the responses and want to elaborate on, just to help shed a better light. I give this from experience I had when I was tracking down the cause of my wonky heat issue 3 years ago. I discovered that one of my vacuum servos was blown out (not the solenoids in the main box, but the ones that directly operate the flaps), so I had to replace it. It didn't cure my problem, but I knew it was a necessary job to do anyway.

It's possible that it may not be the smart-box at all, but one or more of the flap servos; the symptoms you described do sound suspiciously like a malfunctioning vacuum servo. Those vacuum servos do in fact eventually fail; so I think your next step ought to be to check every servo the system has...yes, even that one deep in the body that operates the Fresh/Recirculate flap. How to do that is simple: Disconnect the hose from the servo, and connect a vacuum pump to it. Apply at least 10" vacuum to the servo. If it holds, then the servo is fine; if it does not hold or even reach 10", the servo is not fine and needs replacing. Two (1 for AC/Heat flap, and one for Heat/Defrost flap) are accessible from under the dash, one (the big blending one) in the engine bay, and one deep inside the starboard-side front wheel well (the Fresh/Recirc one and the most irritating one to get to...but see next paragraph). If my guess is right, the servo setups are the same in all three HVAC options, just a matter of getting the exact replacement(s) for the exact flap(s) affected.

If the Fresh/Recirc servo is blown, it's a bear to replace; not complicated, but very hard to reach. Diagnosing it, however, should be fairly easy: Disconnect its vacuum hose at the first accessible spot, which actually may be at the smart-box below the brake booster, and connect the hose to your vacuum pump and apply 10"...and that it reaches and holds.

While you're diagnosing the servos, also inspect the conditions of their supply hoses, particularly the ends. They can split, which will also cause those symptoms.

---Tony

I will check. but this "issue" is new with this box.. there is a noise coming from inside the box (not anywhere else) and seems to only happen on max cool. when i put it midway it stops.. maybe you're right and the blend door or something is cause an issue. maybe its stuck and the box releases extra pressure?.. not sure but i will try doing this.

honestly though, i think it is the ATC box considering they tend to fail. But i'd love to go over the flap servos AND redo the ATC at the same time

[TonyC]

It may be the smart-box, IDK; I do know they can cause whack problems that could confuse Einstein. But I do think it prudent to test the integrity of all the vacuum servos anyway. Nobody thinks of those; even I didn't until a couple years ago and found a bad one. I think checking them off would at least help isolate where the problem may be. If they're all intact, that at least you know the problem isn't there.

Just for the record, I want to clarify something. The setups of the flap servos are the same for the three HVAC options. The servos themselves are not. E.G.: The actuating arm of the Heat-A/C servo is a different length from the Heat/Defrost servo. If you come across a bad servo, make sure you know which one it is and get a replacement of the same servo.

---Tony