OK, I had the blinking temperature indicator and cool/warm air incorrect. Yep, have the air mix out and the gear is broken. Just ordered another one from Rock Auto. At my age (6 , it wasn't fun. What I don't want to happen is break another one. From reading other post there is a belief disconnecting the battery has something to do with it. My guess is it gets out of sync and continues to drive after it has hit the stop. My question is how to prevent breaking another one.
Thanks
Paul

Turn your ECC off before battery disconnect.

Our Gearheads are working some words of wisdom up on that very issue.

Wow, join the 6 :( club. I was sorta thinking I was about the oldest here. 1/4/48.

10/28/1939. Would have been a lot easier 30 or 40 years ago. Bi-focals and bad back make this job a lot more difficult. Sure hope new one doesn't break.
Paul

See if I can make this sound technical enough to get away with it...
As a member of the 6 *, I have found that wearing your bi-focals upside down is a great aid when working under the dash.

Next time I see someone at Walmart with dirty hands and his glasses upside down, I'll know what he'* been up to.

As for gears cracking, I can't validate this at all, but I think age has more to do with it than merely the HVAC controller going into a cal mode. My gut feeling is that after time the plastic gear gets brittle and begins to crack. Disconnecting the battery exacerbates the problem when the HVAC controller runs the airmix door to its limits and is pretty much the nail in the coffin for an already compromised actuator. That'* the Gospel according to Stan, and is no-way based on fact...just suspicions.

Yep, I've got the bad back and bi-focal issues also. My car has been in storeage and I disconnected the battery. I sure hope I don't have the airmix problem when I hook her back up. I can't recall if I turned the temp control off when I parked her. (Got the memory issue also).