Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 11:17:28 -0500
Reply-To: "Keese, Brian W" <bkeese@indiana.edu>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Keese, Brian W" <bkeese@indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: Dash / Air Distribution Box removal
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi David,
The job went fine. No surprises. It took an entire day, though (well,
about three of those hours were spent trying to find foam rubber that would
work to replace the old rotten stuff.)
Here's an article describing what I did:
------------
Replacing Seals in the Air Distribution Box of an 84 Westfalia
Here's more information than you probably ever want, and it may only be good
for an 84 Westy Wolfsburg, I don't know. This is what I did when I could no
longer stand the hot summer air blowing over my feet, even though the vent
controls were closed. It isn't completely comprehensive, but it covers the
highlights. Use your common sense and this is an easy (if time-consuming)
project that requires no special tools or materials.
Before I started, I considered the symptoms:
1. Air was coming in even though the vent controls were all the way
off. I checked their adjustment, which turned out to be OK.
2. The temperature of that air was consistent with the outside air
temp. This suggested to me that it wasn't the common problem of the heater
valve (the one that the coolant flows through) being worn or misadjusted.
3. When the problem started, a few small chunks of old black foam
rubber came blowing out of the vents. This suggested, of course, that the
interior seals had deteriorated.
So I decided to take it all apart and replace the seals. Here's how it
went:
First of all, I have an 84. Whatever year they use as an example in the
Bentley didn't exactly match, so the information there was hit-or-miss, but
useful nonetheless.
The job is really pretty straightforward. You remove the dash following the
diagrams in the Bentley. Then you split the heater box apart, discover the
various interesting ways the flaps are held in and remove them, replace the
foam rubber seals, then put it all back together.
1. Removing the dash:
Follow the Bentley, if you have it, or just use common sense. The
trickiest part is unscrewing the shear bolts that hold the steering column
to the dash. I used a pair of channel-locks and twisted them right out.
One could replace them with hex bolts, but I just re-used the shear bolts -
tightening them up with the channel-locks. Not really tricky at all. The
thing that had me scratching my head for a minute was the heater controls.
But these are easy to remove too. The levers just pull off. The fan
control just pulls out too. Once they are out of the way, you can use your
fingers to pry the cover plate off. There is one plastic post on the lower
left corner and one in the upper right that kind of snap into fittings in
the dash. Remove the little light bulb and the fan control switch (being
careful not to pull the switch apart like I did). Also, on mine there were a
couple of electrical items that I at first failed to disconnect from the
dash. (If you're in doubt at all about your memory, mark where the wires
go. I took me a while to cypher out what went to what when putting things
back together.) An obvious one was the AC control. Pull the knobs off and
unscrew the nut. Another one was a relay pack (I think, I didn't look that
close) that was screwed to inside of the left end of the dash with one
little screw. And don't forget the cigarette lighter, appliance outlet, and
maplight. You'll also need to pull the radio and arrange its wires so they
don't interfere with the dash removal.
2. Split and remove the heater box:
This is really straightforward. There are six large phillips head
bolts that hold the box in place. You might need a long (10" or so)
screwdriver for the two on the back left. I used a shorter screwdriver and
those trusty channel-locks to turn it to break the bolts loose. There's one
on the lower right that is hiding behind the heater hoses. Remove the
control cables from the box by undoing the little spring clips that hold
their ends. Now with the box still in place remove the 11 clips and two
screws that hold the halves together. (This is how mine was held together.
The Bentley suggested that the halves would be welded and would need to be
pried apart, but this wasn't the case for me.) Five of the clips are at the
back, so you will need to slide the box out a little to get to them. The
screws are right in the middle (L-R) of the top of the box, one can be seen
with the box in place, the other is way at the back. Once the box is split,
you can take the heater core out (along with a thin metal plate with holes
in it), disconnect the blower motor (the big resister just snaps out of the
little spring thing) and bring the box to your workbench for surgery.
3. The flaps:
There are four sets of flaps, one each for the: defrost vents, floor
vents, rear fresh air vents, and another mysterious set that I think closes
off the fresh air when the blower is on. I can't remember which is which,
but I do remember how each was held in place, mostly because I think it's
interesting that four very different methods were used. One set in held in
by a large cover plate with six screws. Beneath this cover plate and set of
flaps are the two mysterious flaps (measuring about 3x5 inches each) that
just snap into place and hang there (no controls attach to them). In the
other half of the case are the two other sets of flaps. The first ones have
end caps that must be pushed off (from inside, pushing in the little tabs)
before they can be popped out. The last set is held in by four little
plastic wedges that fit into slots in the case. Once the flaps are out,
it's pretty obvious what needs to be done. Pop off the little black plastic
plates and replace the foam. I used 5/16" thick weather stripping from the
local home improvement store, but I think 1/4" would be better (I had some
5mm foam, but even though it was a good thickness, it was too stiff to allow
a good seal). If you can get some that is 1.25" wide, that would be about
perfect. Otherwise use mulitple thinner strips like I did. It should be at
least 3/4" wide though. Try cutting the foam just larger that the metal
plates to which it attaches and do a test fit. Try to size it to completely
close the gaps, but still allow the flaps to move freely.
4. Putting it all back together.
No surprises here - reverse the above. Remember to put the metal
plate and the heater core back in (can't really forget that) and to reattach
the blower motor before clipping the halves back together (This is easy to
forget and will make a lot of extra work if you do - BTDT). Reattach the
vent control cables. Grooves in the cable sleeves will show where they used
to fit under the little clips. Replace the dash: at first I wondered why
the dash wouldn't sit nicely down in place, then I realized the two supports
that hold the dash up on either side of the steering column aren't there for
that at all. They go above the dash, not below it. You can swivel them out
of the way while you place the dash. Replace all the various screws (don't
forget about that relay pack), replace all the electrical connections and
the vent controls
and voila! You're done.
That's about it. Hope I didn't forget anything and that this is helpful.
Brian Keese
84 Westy "The Ark"
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