You must not be looking at the blend door, it's by the hump on the passenger side. It is either electric or boden cable. It would be impossible to operate it on vacuum as it is not open or closed it is all the positions in between. Perhaps you are looking at the recirc door behind the glove box?

 

I looked at the door behind the glove box to make sure it was operating, but I am definitely looking at the door over the pass side hump. I had to remove a couple pieces of rigid ducting to get to it with any efficiency. It seems to operate just like the recirc door (behind the glove box) and floor vent door (in the drivers side floorboard). Is there more than three doors? I will try to get a couple pictures up asap.
Thank you for you input.

 

I was looking for a pic of the electric actuator and came across this https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...1&d=1267906958 I may be wrong about the year they changed to electric but I know that 1995 had a boden cable and I thought that 1996 was electric. I hope that helps.

 

LOL!! I was going to post a pic of the blend door arm/cable.. That's my pic you found!! That pic is from my truck(98.5)

 

I took a few pictures of what I am dealing with here. Maybe they will help...

This first one is of the disconnected cable end...


This one is taken from my drivers floorboard (note the 4wd shift lever for reference) showing the (not connected) vacuum actuator. You can also see the white plastic lever that operates the blend door.


This last one was taken in the same location as the 2nd pic but without the vacuum actuator. You can again see the white lever that operates the blend door.


Praise the Lord I have another vehicle to drive around right now, because mine is in many pieces on the inside...

 

ok, On the vacuum actuator pic. Is it connected to the arm? That arm controlls the heat/defrost door.

The first pic of the cable is for the blend door. that is the end that hooks on the door arm ( see busboys link)

 

Bio
- as you were probably typing that message I figured out that the white arm controls the heat/ defrost door. Thanks for your help. I could only get to the blend door with the defrost door in one position...

-Were your pics were taken with the dash off? I can see that white arm in your pic, but only through a "strategically" placed hole inside of my glove box.

I'm really trying to avoid removing the entire dash if at all possible. How did you get to yours?

Bus
-kudos for identifying that I was definitely NOT looking at the blend door.

 

Looking at the pic of your boden cable I would say it's broken. Boden cables either push into a slot and lock or they are screwed on. They attach to the door arm by either a loop slipping over the door shaft arm or a sliding spring clip that slips over the door shaft arm. If the cable has a loop then there will be an adjuster, if it has a spring clip (like yours) that is the adjuster.
If yours pushes in and doesn't lock because the lock part is missing, broken off it may be possible to tie-wrap the cable in such a way to apply downward pressure to keep the cable in the slot.
I would say you could access it from the glove box.

 

Thanks for all of the help. I ended up having to pull the dash back out of the way to get to the cable. With the dash pulled out of the way, I drilled a small hole under where the cable/ lock mechanism rests (the lock mechanism was broke) to accomodate a zip tie and tightened it down. I also ended up having to remove the cable from the control end to give me enough slack to operate the cable on the blend door side... In the process, the lock mechanism broke on this end also. So... I zip tied it secure too. Everything functions like normal now.

I am going to try to post some pics up tomorrow for reference.

Thanks to everybody for your help.

 

Glad you got it figured out. The lock on the cable is a real pain to get disconnected, and someone must have broken it during a previous repair. Sounds like you got it working well with the zip tie. Good job.

 

I think you are right. I had my heater core replaced about a year ago and after having my dash off, I can see how easy it would be to break the locking mechanism on that cable. I'm pretty confident that the zip tie will do its job.

I was in such hurry yesterday getting everything back together that I failed to take any pictures of the process but if anyone runs into this problem in the future, message me and I will help walk you through the whole process.

Thanks for everyones help. The AC is back to freezing cold again and the wife is back to wearin a jacket when we go on a road trip!