Need help installing a LMC 31-1371 RETAINER

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Oregon Guy

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I'm working on my son's 1990 Chevy k1500 with the 5.7 snd 4WD. I'm looking for help installing the two air vent retainers I ordered and received from LMC truck. For reference, LMC's item # is 31-1371. Supposedly, their purpose in life is to hold in (retain) the two air vents located in the in the top half of the deck trim. For refence please see the pic of the trim and the vents in question by clicking on the link below. If it works, it should take you to a random YouTube that shows the two vents. Without the retainers the vents fall inward. There are no holes in the baack of my trim piece to use to secure the ends of the retainers. So, I must be missing something obvious. Hope this makes sense and thanks for your help in advance.


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RustyNM_92

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So, I must be missing something obvious. Hope this makes sense and thanks for your help in advance.]

The center trim piece should have two holes for the retainer, the diagram on LMC truck shows it facing the wrong way, the indent in the middle of the retainer pushes the vent up against the face of the trim. If you find those two little holes it should be pretty explanatory.

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Erik the Awful

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There are two of those dinky springs, one on either side of the vent. They're kinda fiddly, but if you get them in place right they do a pretty good job of holding it together. My vents were all smashed when I got my truck, but I was able to disassemble a dozen smashed vents at the yard and make a full set of vents for my truck. I'll see if I can get a pic today.
 

PlayingWithTBI

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Here's the vent from my 88. You can see the hole on one end and the spring clip (red arrow) that goes on the other end. BTW - I put a small piece of 3/16" X 3/4" weatherstripping in there so the vents won't pivot down on me since they're a little worn. Works great!

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PlayingWithTBI

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Here's a pic with the other vent installed. It was pretty hard getting the spring in place because the weatherstrip was pushing against it but, I was able to pry it over enough to get the spring in.
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Eveready

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The redneck fix is a piece of cardboard with a slot in the middle sized to fit around the posts and positioned next to the vent on each side. The slot faces the front of the vent and is held in place with a little glue. The friction of the cardboard against the vent holds the vent wherever you want it.

This is for situations where the spring has flown off to who knows where, it is 98 degrees in the cab and you want to get the damn thing reassembled so that you can use the AC. Don't ask how I know about this.
 
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