A wire? My 1998 had 2 plastic parts to activate the recirc damper. I used silicone spray to lube the plastic arm joints and that solved my 'sticky, slow movement'.

Just after engine start, the ECC goes through a check routine that runs all of the dampers to make sure they operate. This is when the orange blinking lights of death will turn on. Originally, before removing the glove box, I used to just flip the recirc switch multiple times, waiting for damper completion each time, and then restarting the engine so that the lights would not come on.

Normally, the problem with the ECC unit and blinking lights starts with a dirty cabin temp sensor. Removal and cleaning is required.