Fresh air/recirculate actuator working backwards
 

I have a 1995 chevy silverado and the fresh air /recirculate actuator started making a noise so I changed it. When I installed it I had to take a screw driver and hold the flap open to line it up not thinking. Now I think it works bakwards, meaning when I have the recirculate button pushed in (on) the vent is closed. When it's not pushed in (off) the vent is open. I was even going to live with it even though it bothers me,but it seems that when I use the defrost it stays fogged up longer because the fresh air door is open to the cab air. Any help on how to get this corrected will be appreciated. I have had it off a few times a left the wiring connected and cycled it a little both directions and turned off. I even disconnected the battery thinking it would reset. Help please.

should it not be closed to recirc mode and open to allow outside air to pass....that is how it works on the 1999- 2014 hvac cases

Well unless I don't understand how it should work I think it's working backwards because when the button is pushed in (tuning recirculate on) the flap is closed, meaning fresh air is being pulled from outside, right? When the button is off the flap is open, meaning cab air is being pulled in. So it's working backwards. I may just end up closing it by the button and unplugin it just to get through winter or if someone can tell me how to reset it or fix it. It don't work right on defrost because when I switch it to defrost the flap is open to the cab causing it to not remove fog very fast at all not anything like before.

On my 95 the recirculate/fresh air door is right behind the fan motor near the passenger floor board and you can take your hand and feel if it's open to the cab or closed.

not sure about your build. I would have to see the hvac case. the newer ones have the recirc door above the blower motor at the fresh air inlet cut out...so the door moves over the inlet to block off outside air and moves over the hvac case cut out to allow outside air in.

you know your in recirc mode if the air flow velosity out the ducts increases

I know it's been awhile since this was posted but I had the same trouble after changing my actuator for fresh air/recirculation door. Here is what I found.

It seems the replacement part is wired backwards. The electric motor in the replacement unit (amazon) does run clockwise and counter clockwise as it's supposed to but it operates in the opposite direction of what the command that is being sent. Here is what I did to verify this. I took the circuit board and motor out of the new actuator, plugged it into the pigtail connector (yes, the dash was already apart). Pressing the fresh air button caused the motor to rotate CCW., recirculating CW. This is opposite of what is needed. So I cut the wires between the motor and the circuit board and reversed them. Sure enough now fresh air rotates CW and recirculating CCW. This configuration would cause the door to operate in the correct manner.
I took it one step further. On the old actuator (factory provided one) I swapped out the big gear with the female receiver for the fresh air door with the new one from the Amazon actuator. That was what was broken on my original actuator, a tooth missing and cracks where the nylon gear is joined to the metal shaft. Guess what, everything worked exactly as it should have! No backwards operation, no reversing wires. This is why I think the Amazon actuator is manufactured incorrectly but can be fixed if you know how to solder some wires together.

Hope you guys can see this and it brings some light to your past problems.