00:00Hello, this is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel.
00:04Today, I'm going to show you how to fix this FortiClinolone van.
00:07Anybody that owns a 97 or newer FortiClinolone van may experience loss in heating and air
00:14conditioning out of the vents on the dashboard temporarily when they're under a heavy acceleration
00:19or heavy load.
00:20Once you let go of the gas, the air conditioning or heat comes back, you get a hot or cold
00:24blast.
00:25It's quite of an annoyance.
00:26I wouldn't say it's an absolute necessary fix, but if you were to take it to a Ford dealership,
00:31it's about a $1,000 repair.
00:33It's mostly labor.
00:34The parts cost under $50.
00:37This accumulator and a little check valve winds up going bad and you lose vacuum temporarily.
00:43Engine starves the system of vacuum.
00:46Once you restore vacuum by letting go of the gas or getting up that hill, you get the air
00:50conditioning back.
00:51But this is buried underneath the dashboard.
00:55The whole dashboard has to come back.
00:57Out of the vehicle, the whole heater box has to come out.
01:01This has to get put in, the new valve, and then all the way back in, so it's all labor
01:05intensive.
01:06I'm going to show you how to bypass the one underneath the dash, and we're going to install
01:09this elsewhere.
01:11I watched a whole bunch of YouTube videos.
01:12Everybody had a different approach.
01:13I think I collected some of the best, and I'm just going to do it in one simple video.
01:19These are the items you're going to need to purchase.
01:22The accumulator reservoir from Ford, eighth inch vacuum tubing, the air conditioning valve,
01:32and some vacuum connectors.
01:34All these things were able to be found on Amazon, and I got them all for under $50.
01:42After you've purchased all the items I mentioned, you want to come up and open up the hood and
01:48find the vacuum line, and it's located next to this oil fill cap.
01:54And you can see here there's a little connection.
01:57This is the line that goes into the heater box, and then this line, you can see it's a little
02:02bit red here.
02:03That goes right to the engine, so this is where the vacuum's coming from.
02:06We're going to disconnect this portion here.
02:10We're going to feed this through the doghouse and use it on the inside, and we're going
02:14to abandon this piece, this line right here.
02:17We're going to use part of it once we go back inside the van, but we're going to abandon
02:21this portion here.
02:23Now we're inside the passenger compartment of the van.
02:27We're going to pull this plate off, this thicker plate, pull from the bottom up, that comes
02:32off very easily.
02:35You want to grab an 8mm socket and take this plate off, four bolts total.
02:48These are sharp too, so be careful.
02:51Once you get that plate off, you want to come in with a 10mm socket and take the top bracket
02:57bolt off that goes into the doghouse.
03:05And the bracket that holds the dashboard to the doghouse, we're going to leave the bottom
03:14bolt in place.
03:17Then we're going to pull the doghouse back a few inches.
03:28After you have the doghouse pulled back, what you want to do is locate the red vacuum line
03:33that we disconnected underneath the hood, the end that it goes into the engine, and then
03:37pull back on the rest of it.
03:39Now this might be in a bracket underneath the hood, so you might have to relieve it from
03:44there so you can pull it through.
03:45And we're going to take this end off here, and that top bracket that we took that bolt
03:52out of, what we're going to use is just a hole from it.
03:55Instead of drilling a hole through the doghouse, but we're going to poke through the insulation
03:59with this screwdriver right here, and then we're going to feed this through that hole.
04:07And you just have to line it up so it goes through the threads of this piece on the doghouse.
04:14There we go.
04:17Now I'm going to pull back some of this loom here, there we go.
04:25Okay, now we're going to use the check valve we bought, it's a Ford check valve, we're going
04:32to slide this back on, here, we're going to put this piece on the black side, just like
04:47that.
04:49Okay, the next step, down by the floor here on the passenger side compartment next to the
04:56doghouse, we have to locate the black vacuum line.
04:59Now it might vary in color depending on your model year, but I did some due diligence,
05:03I made sure there's two lines here.
05:05This is the one that comes from the accumulator that's bad, and we're just going to utilize
05:10it by cutting it.
05:12You could also, before you cut it, there's a little access panel on top of the dashboard
05:19that you could take off, and you could see that black line go into the valve assembly.
05:24So I already know this is the one to cut, so I'm just going to cut it, the snips here.
05:33Okay, and here's the end right there.
05:37Now what we're going to do is use some of the pieces recycled from underneath the hood
05:40that we're not using anymore, put it on the end that feeds up into the dash, just make
05:46that connection right here, slide the tube inside the small end.
05:52It's going to be a tight fit, but you want to make sure it's tight so you have proper vacuum.
06:00Then the new vacuum line that we bought, we're going to slide this end over here, and I cut
06:06it to about 12 inches.
06:09Okay, now what we're going to do is take this end, and this end here, and make that connection.
06:22Nice and tight.
06:24Okay, then we're going to take some of the vacuum line that I purchased.
06:28I just only need a small section, cut about 6 inches.
06:34And we're going to go from here, right into the accumulator.
06:53Make sure it gets on all the way.
06:55And then what we're going to utilize is one of the bolts for the bracket on the dashboard
07:00here.
07:00We're going to run through the side of the accumulator.
07:04We're going to relocate it here, and it'll still fit, and everything will go back together.
07:09So we're just bypassing the one inside the heater box, and putting it out of the heater
07:15box.
07:17What I'm going to do is make sure I don't pinch that vacuum line.
07:23Then I take my 10 millimeter, and run that in at a bracket.
07:40This bracket's still in place.
07:41You've still got one bolt here.
07:43The upper bolt's removed, so we could run the vacuum line through.
07:46It's going to snug it.
07:47Don't let it snug get too tight, because you could crack the plastic.
07:50Then we're going to tuck all this up nice and neat into the dashboard.
07:56And then we're going to put the plate back on.
08:05That was that 8 millimeter.
08:08You want to tighten it with your fingers first, before you put a wrench on it.
08:33Now we just have to slide the doghouse back on, and put on the panel.
08:40Sometimes this part could be the most challenging part.
08:42Get everything lined up.
09:02Line up the bottom first, line up the pins, snap it in place.
09:10Now you can test the system to make sure it's working properly.
09:29Now I take it for a road test to make sure it works under load.
09:33Okay, so before, when I go to get onto this traffic on the highway here, and I go to accelerate,
09:42right about here, it would cut off.
09:47And I'd have nothing.
09:51It's continuing to come out.
09:55Perfect.
09:57So as soon as I would let off right around here, I'll get a blast of cold air.
10:02Now it's continuous.
10:05Hope you enjoyed this video.
10:06Please like this video.
10:07Comment, share, subscribe.
10:09I love it.
10:10I'll see you soon.
