Heat vent controls

Tonight I installed the two heat vent cockpit controls. These are push/pull controls that are mounted on the instrument panel and open the heat vents, one pilot side, and one passenger side.

No real challenges installing these controls. I was careful to ensure I had a 1/16 cushion gap when the vents are fully closed. This will be more critical on the other controls, but it was good practice.

In the process of reading through the plans I made a couple of realizations. One is that I have the wrong version of the control mounting bracket. The version I have is labeled as the updated part number with a -1 at the end, but it’s actually the old version. I emailed Vans to confirm, hopefully I can get a new one quickly. I could just make a new one, but locating the holes would be time consuming. Unfortunately I’m blocked on the rest of the control cable install steps until I have that bracket in-hand.

The other realization is that my panel wiring harnesses are going to be interfering with the control cables. I can probably make it work, but will need to look out for chaffing problems in places where the wiring bundles and control cables are touching.

The control cable collection
Pilot side cabin heat control
Passenger side heat control
The mechanism to open and close the heat vent. These are on the firewall.
Routing of the control cable

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