I removed my air vent under the dash under the drivers side. I had to do some repair work on the cowl hoods that were leaking. Now several months later I am trying to put it back in place and for the life of me I cannot get the 3 bolts to line up with the 3 holes on the air vent. I tried moving it every which way it will go and no matter what I cant get it to work. It has the cable coming off of it to adjust the airflow and a "J" hook bolted to the back of it I am assuming to hold wiring from under the dash. I can get two bolts in but the third is at least half an inch off.
The bolts are attached to the car I am assuming spot welded in place so your suppose to run those bolts through the holes on the vent and then use nuts to tighten it....but cant get all 3 bolts through. PLEASE HELP...

 

Kep trying. It came out, it will go back in. I had to keep rotating mine to find the right position, but it finally dropped into place.

 

It's a PITA job, but it will go in! It HAS to go in; it came out, didn't it? You just have to try every which way you can. When I did mine, I seem to remember that I too had a bit of trouble, I SEEM to remember that the way it finally fit was not very obvious, I had not even considered it, that's why I kept fiddling around without success. Keep at it, just remember, the wiring under there, if it isn't new, is kinda deicate; don't be too rough or you'll spend a ton of time figuring out what went wrong with the wiring after you get the air vent in!!
Good Luck!
jay67fast

 

Well I messed with it for about 3 hours and I tried every which way you could turn it in there..... Can you tell me if I am missing anything? Its just 3 nuts that hold it in place...no brackets?

 

This is a 65, and upside down, but the Bowden cable bracket is on the right side, slightly toward the front.

 

This is one of those situations were you fine a 6 year old that is mechanically inclined and say "Hey" I'll give you 10 bux if you can make this fit. You give him the vent, grab his legs, and slid him under the dash. Sometimes theres nothing like the hands of a kid. It works. Anyway, these are just hard to get on. My hands will not fit so I use a long extension with a piece of electrical tape over the end. This will hold the nut somewhat while you try to get on the stud. If it is the same one that came off, then it will go back on. Look on the studs and see if theres any silicon or whatever you used to do the repair that might be hindering your efforts. As in the photo, keep the push/pull controller toward its natural position. These will fit only one way (I think). Oh, sometimes a few foul words seems to help, except when the neighbours are listening and start laughing. I'll say, "did you hear that on the radio" (like it wasn't me)? But they never fall for it. Good luck.

 

You didn't say what repair work you did on the cowl. Maybe that moved one of the studs?
If so, just fit it on the two good studs and drill a hole in the vent for the 'wrong' one.

 

Yep, three studs and coarse thread nuts.