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About 8 months ago I was faced with changing out the center AC vents on my 1982 GS. Mine were crispy and deteriorating from age and sun exposure to the point that if you even touched them to clean them, pieces would fall off.
Everything I had read online and on this forum said it was nearly impossible to replace the center vents without pulling the dash to access the assembly. After some extensive Google searching, a local friend and RX7club member (Tripple7s) ran across a fairly obscure post from a Gen 1 thread in Australia that detailed a simple way to swap them out with no dash pulling required, so I thought, why not give it a try.
The first thing you’ll need is a clean donor set of center vents from another car. Make sure to get a set that’s flexible, and in good condition (i.e., still pliable).
Once you have the side-by-side assembly, you’ll undo the screw in the back and gently depress the two side tabs while lightly prying near the back edge with the flat edge of your small screwdriver to release the vent center section. Once the two vent pieces are released, you’re ready to start the replacement process.
For your car, it’s a good idea to have a shop vac handy along with a small pair of needle nosed pliers, a short Allen head wrench and small pic tool.
Simply begin by slowly twisting and breaking your old vent air slats while sucking up broken pieces with your shop vac. Once the slat portion is removed, simple use your pic tool to lift the lower portion of the remaining slat frame up, then lift it and remove.
Once removed, grab one of your donor slat assemblies and position the air slats as flat as possible. Carefully slide the flattened vent assembly into place, stand it up in the opening, and pull the back side frame forward using an Allen head wrench. That’s it. Repeat the same process on the other side and your done. No dash pulling required.
Once I had the donor vent assembly in hand, the replacement process took less than an hour to complete. Hope this post helps you as much as it did me! Let me know if you have any questions.
Mine are falling apart as well. I was able to pull out one just by prying at the sides. Tried to 3D print a support but it they still get misaligned, I think I'd have to print all new fins.
I'm a bit nervous of trying to pull them out again.
I wonder if some other more common mazda cars have the same vents? @j9fd3s May know if any part numbers are common to various Mazda models for the vents.
Thanks for sharing this - I've literally just installed it as per these instructions and whilst it was fiddly, it took me maybe half an hour so a whole lot less pain than having to remove the dash!
