Last night, I decided to remove the centre console from my S2N bargain bucket. (Long story!!) Going from the instructions I recieved from here and from Haynes, I set about removing the appropriate screws and then went fishing for the locking bar through the stereo apperture, but I couldn't find it. (Turns out there's no locking bar on the non Climate Control cars!! DOH!!)

So I eventually figured out how to do it, but in my search for the locking bar, I managed to dislodge some sort of control rod. It looks to all intents and purposes like one of the rods that the door locking pin uses. It's about a foot long, with a hook on one end and is serated/tapped at the other end. It sits across the aperturegoing from left to right.

I tried to figure out where it went back, but due to it being late and having sore hands I gave up.

Anyone know what it does? If it's something minor, I can live without it.

If it's not minor, can someone tell me how to refit it?

I did a How 2 on a similar forum to this on early models with rotary heater controls, and also noted this bar. It might also be worth checking that you have not dislodged the vacuum pipe assembly which is also adjacent to the bar (round rubber type thing with small pipes going into it) It just pushes on the connector at the rear of the controls.