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I recently installed a Vent rebuild kit from Sunbeam Specialties. I took some pictures which might help somebody in the future to do this job.
The reason I went into this rebuild is that I could no longer feel the vent door snap as it once did. The flapper door has a narrow plastic area that acts as a hinge. Time and fatigue takes their toll. (see picture of a failing hinge)
As I understand it, Tom Hall used to make the Vent Rebuild kits. He wrote up a tech tip for them which is today included with the Sunbeam Specialties kits. However Sunbeam Specialties is now having the kits made for them by someone else and it seems a few things have changed.
One change is that today's kit has a heavier spring so that only one spring is used in each vent box instead of the original pair. Since the spring is a few thousandths oversized you need enlarge the hole in the boss on the flapper door. (I manually forced the steel spring through the plastic hole a number of times which opened the hole nicely.)
To make it easier to insert the spring into the boss on the flapper door I filed a slight point onto the end of the spring. (pictured)
Another change is that the peel to stick gasket provided in the kit would not stick. An adhesive spray quickly fixed that.
To make assembly easier I followed Tom's suggestion to epoxy the nuts to the aluminum frame and I also epoxied the frame to the new flapper door.
I used an Allen wrench to help install the spring.
Good Luck!
Buck
(ps assembly was made easier by Claudia supplying an extra set of hands!)
The reason I went into this rebuild is that I could no longer feel the vent door snap as it once did. The flapper door has a narrow plastic area that acts as a hinge. Time and fatigue takes their toll. (see picture of a failing hinge)
As I understand it, Tom Hall used to make the Vent Rebuild kits. He wrote up a tech tip for them which is today included with the Sunbeam Specialties kits. However Sunbeam Specialties is now having the kits made for them by someone else and it seems a few things have changed.
One change is that today's kit has a heavier spring so that only one spring is used in each vent box instead of the original pair. Since the spring is a few thousandths oversized you need enlarge the hole in the boss on the flapper door. (I manually forced the steel spring through the plastic hole a number of times which opened the hole nicely.)
To make it easier to insert the spring into the boss on the flapper door I filed a slight point onto the end of the spring. (pictured)
Another change is that the peel to stick gasket provided in the kit would not stick. An adhesive spray quickly fixed that.
To make assembly easier I followed Tom's suggestion to epoxy the nuts to the aluminum frame and I also epoxied the frame to the new flapper door.
I used an Allen wrench to help install the spring.
Good Luck!
Buck
(ps assembly was made easier by Claudia supplying an extra set of hands!)
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