Yet another air blend door question

The air blend door, I know that's a really novel thing to ask about! I've searched and searched, both here and elsewhere, so if I've missed the thread that explained this, I do apologize.

Background: this is our $1000 farm truck, 160-ish k on the clock, a 2000 rclb v8 4x4. The original owner traded it in at a dealer that kept it as their salt and plow truck, eventually one of their own guys bought it, and then he ended up selling it to me. It's had the frame replacement, Toyota reman a/t 3k miles ago (!), etc etc. Visually, it looks like an old farm truck. Which, well, it is. =)

Anyhow, one of the many problems it had when it came to us was that the hot/cold dial on the dash basically didn't work. I had hoped it was just the cable binding, took it apart, oiled the cable, now the cable moves freely. Someone had tried to force the dial to turn and broke off the end of the little lever, so I've JB welded some washers in place to make a place for the end of the cable to go. So far, so good.

I've also tried to move the lever that the cable moves (air blend door?) by hand. It's doable, but doesn't feel like it's as easy as it should be. I've taken a whole heap of stuff out of the way but I still don't see how to get that housing out to work on it better, or how to get oil into it without doing so. What am I missing? I realize that taking the entire thing out would involve draining both the coolant and the a/c, not really wanting to do that. I was hoping it wasn't going to come down to just setting it to COLD in summer and HOT in winter, but if the alternative is draining all that, I'll keep it simple.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

 

Bump

 

Check out this thread from last year. The original topic is a mod to allow manual control of A/C while in defrost mode. But browse through it for pics of the control and actuator ends of the heat controls. Particularly post #54 by @Professional Hand Model where he shows lube points down by the driver's side footwell.

Hope it helps.

 

We're getting closer! The picture on that post shows the mode selector (defrost, dash vents, foot...) which I would also do well to lube on my truck -- so thanks for pointing that out too. Good idea for me to get that while I have the dash apart.

The part I was originally trying to lube, though, is the little door that adjusts the air temperature by having more air (or less air) go through the heater core.

It's at the bottom of this part (picture from passenger's side footwell)



And looks like this:



It's possible to move that linkage by pushing or pulling on the little tab that the cable would move, but it does not move smoothly. It appears to be binding at the point where that threaded metal rod meets the plastic part in the lower right of the 2nd picture.

Beyond trying to put a little oil or grease at those pivot points, there's no way to service this without taking the whole HVAC module out of the truck, is there?