So I'm putting the dash back together on the 93 Middle East import I've been working on. And I was cleaning up the AC registers and parts are basically disintegrating. Replacements are available here and there for, for example 55650-60010 but I did not want to wait and I wanted to see if it was possible to fix these darned things. The basic problem is that the little strip of plastic that causes each of vanes is disintegrated or in the process of doing so. I hit upon the idea of replacing it with a nylon zip tie with holes drilled in it. Here's how it went.
Here is the assembly taken apart.
I found that the little nubs that the plastic strip ties together is a little bigger than 2mm, so that is the size hole I drilled after measuring the inter-vane distance--13mm for this register.
Here's the completed strip with 5 holes, 13mm apart (other registers have a different distance).
And here are the vanes now tied together again, this time by the zip tie section with the holes drilled in it:
The nylon zip tie seems to have just about the right amount of flexibility. The little nubs snapped through the 2mm holes and showed no tendency to pull out again.
Here is the assembly taken apart.
I found that the little nubs that the plastic strip ties together is a little bigger than 2mm, so that is the size hole I drilled after measuring the inter-vane distance--13mm for this register.
Here's the completed strip with 5 holes, 13mm apart (other registers have a different distance).
And here are the vanes now tied together again, this time by the zip tie section with the holes drilled in it:
The nylon zip tie seems to have just about the right amount of flexibility. The little nubs snapped through the 2mm holes and showed no tendency to pull out again.