Rodent proofing the B-body

Now that I found my SD card from my camera I can finally show you all what I did to prevent a fire from breaking out in my Caprice again. As a lot of you know I have had a problem with mice getting into my 9C1's HVAC housing since I bought it. What started out as a minor annoyance of having to clean out the blower every now and then escalated into a fire. While I had the car torn apart to replace the melted and burnt parts (and upgrade to auto climate control) I went ahead and permanantly addressed this problem. My previous fix was to install the cabin air filter mod, which I did buy but never installed.
The "fix" itself is pretty simple, the difficult part is getting to the intake part inside the dash to do it. You could probably do this under the cowl, but if the box is out of the car it's much neater. I used a piece of steel gutter leaf guard from the hardware store and cut it into a box shape. Once tested for fit I riveted it into the box. So far it's been in there for 2 months and I am happy to say nothing has been living in my car



And what your dash looks like when you almost have this thing out of the car:

Nice, wish it were that easy IN the car.

Any idea what actually moves to divert heat from the defrost to the floor?
Matts car doesnt do this (dont think it has for years)
I'd like to fix it.
The heater core is fine so I use to live with the controls set on hot & vent during the winter
Now that he got his license he's been driving anyone & everyone around & they're all comlaining about the heat.
I'll be removing the 160 deg thermostat but I'd love to know what door or arm or whatever was supposed to swing to divert air to the floor

Steve, there is a vacuum canister under the dash directly above the heater vent, had a vacuum actuated plunger that moves the diverter, I believe it's a red vac line going into it (could be tan) I'd check there first. My roadmaster was just having the same issue. Mine ended up being the vacuum manifold under the glove box that wasn't firmly seated, not sure if caprice/imp have the same manifold as roadie/fwb

Can the diverter arm come loose?
I'll definetly check the vacuum but I thought I could hear it call but nothing mechanically changed.
Damn....another job with my head stuck under the dash....
Thanks for the tip....at least I have hope of finding an easy problem

sdstick wrote:

Can the diverter arm come loose?
I'll definetly check the vacuum but I thought I could hear it call but nothing mechanically changed.
Damn....another job with my head stuck under the dash....
Thanks for the tip....at least I have hope of finding an easy problem

The most annoying place to try to get your head into! You know it's his car now! Make him do the awkward positioning! You're a good supervisor, he can follow your instructions I bet!

Dont know if your old enough to answer the question but....

Whats that noise that Charlie Browns hears when his teacher talks???
(same sound my wife makes sometimes.. )

Cuz I guarantee thats what Matt hears when I talk

I'll let him know you believe he can step up & solve this....

Appreciate that

sdstick wrote:

Dont know if your old enough to answer the question but....

Whats that noise that Charlie Browns hears when his teacher talks???
(same sound my wife makes sometimes.. )

Cuz I guarantee thats what Matt hears when I talk

I'll let him know you believe he can step up & solve this....

Appreciate that

I'm sorry Steve what did you say all I heard was mwah Wah Wah wha mwah Wah

Just kidding! Hey if I was given a car I'd pick it over like crazy. I actually did the cougars first oil change a month early because I was bored and want to mess around with my car! Having a car is more than driving around like a big shot, you've got to know how to do a few things to it to claim ownership.

Interesting. How long you figure it took to get the dash down to that point? Matt, let me know when you're doing this mod to the dggm. I wanna stop by and check it out.

Damn, I had a really good pic of this thing with all the lines on it. I'll have to dig through my camera again.

As far as disassembly, I would guess hour and a half to get to this point, give or take. Its easier if you have parted these cars before to learn all the little tricks of how parts are attached.

8bud wrote:

Interesting. How long you figure it took to get the dash down to that point? Matt, let me know when you're doing this mod to the dggm. I wanna stop by and check it out.

Hahaha...we'll see. I actually buttoned up the dash this afternoon (but left most of the screws out for the trim plate) because I was sick of looking at it half disassembled, and I didn't want to lose anything...

Dave, for some reason I thought this happened because mice chewed wires that started the fire? Was it actually a nest or something that ignited? So relieved my problem didn't get to that level!

I'm curious as to where the mice get into these cars, like an entry point? Mini Coopers have a big problem with it where there is a very convenient air intake sort of thing that they just hop right into, so I'm told.

Matt,

It wasn't chewed wire that started it, it was the nest they made on top of the blower resistor next to the fan. That thing apparently gets hot enough to ignite something flammable if there is no airflow from a clogged blower. I guess that's why they stick it in there to be cooled by the blower. I had always wondered how they got in there in the first place, I always found insulation under the dash, in the trunk and under the rear seat. As it turn out, they were getting into the car under the cowell where the air intake is and would find their way out of the air duct or something into the car. This is not the first B-body I had to clean a nest out of, just one with the most persistent mice. I lost track of how many I killed over the years. Nothing funnier than an LT1 covered in mouse traps

This link shows where the cabin filter mod is done, that is the intake where they get in along with all the other crap we have to clean out every now and then.
http://www.goldsswagon.com/cabinfilter/cabinfilter.htm

Below are some more pics of the CARnage.