Fixing Ashtray on Armrest

[Deleted member 20330]

Regarding a 97 Mark VIII base, is there a way to repair the ashtray cover on the armrest ?

Most of the time the ashtray cover will not stay down, but sometimes it will.

How do you remove it to see what the problem is ?

Do you have to disassemble the armrest ?

 

[Lownslowlsc]

I forget what the inner workings look like for the lid.. But I'd probably squirt (with a slender straw attached) a little lube on each side of the opening by the rotating mechanism for the lid. It's also possible that something could've gotten down in there and intermittently causing it to act up.

If you want to take it apart.

Remove wood radio bezel, radio and defrost panel . There are 2 screws under the defrost panel holding the wood bezel to the dash, remove those first.
Remove 4 screws surrounding shifter bezel and screws holding center console to dash
Remove 2 screws at the bottom of console storage compartment
Disconnect any electrical connections

Wiggle it out and then disassemble the ashtray/cupholder from the console, there's quite a few screws in odd places holding it all together.

I'd try the lube first


I might have some pics from when I disassembled a spare unit on the home computer. If I do I'll post them.

 

[Deleted member 20330]

I'll try it.

I thought maybe the spring was broken.

 

[todd2fst4u]

Steps 3-9 of these blend door removal instructions will illustrate what Lownslowlsc is saying.
http://www.markviii.org/LOD2/blend_door_repair.htm

I would clean all the gears for the ashtray door. It most likely has some dirt in it causing it to stick. It's not a broken spring, that would cause the door not to open.

 

[Lownslowlsc]

Got some for ya.

 

[Lownslowlsc]

I'm not entirely sure how it does the one push open/close. I would start by spraying this gear and the 1" long lever on the other side shown 3-4 pics up. Remove the ashtray and grab a bottle of wd40 or equivalent with straw attachment and spray it. You can squeeze a towel between the console and carpet to catch whatever drips down. If you have a air compressor you might want to consider shooting some air into it too.

I don't know if it'll work but I don't see anything else that it could be. Worth trying before you start disassembly.

Note that the cup holder assembly was "cleaned" when I stored it away. If you saw what it looked like before you'd know why stuff jambs up in there.

 

[todd2fst4u]

Great photos! I believe the black lever and the grooves in the lid are what control the one touch open/close.