Date:         Tue, 26 Mar 2002 18:01:34 -0600
Reply-To:     Joel Walker <jwalker17@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <jwalker17@EARTHLINK.NET>
Organization: not likely
Subject:      Re: a/c roof ducts recall
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

> I remember that a few months ago there was mention of a problem with
the a/c
> ducts falling from tha roof. I went to the local vw dealer, and they
simply
> appear to not give a rat's ass (the guy that I talked to owns a
Toyota
> Tercel with vw hubcaps, very catchy...NOT). Anyway, is there a
number I can
> call, a website I can check, to get info on this. The person that I
talked
> to at the main office for the local dealer told me it would take two
weeks
> to get back to me on the issue, and the two weeks are up. I think
that if I
> don't get the info by myself, they won't be interested on doing it
for me.

the recall campaign is number SU, and is dated February 1994.
the phone numbers given are 800-822-8987 (vw of america, in michigan)
and 800-424-9393 (u.s. dept of transportation, washington, d.c.).  it
applies to only the non-campers, however.

but ...

i did mine myself. it's not very hard. the worst part is getting the
front overhead housing down, as it contains the wires for the a/c
switches and the tiny easily-broken wires for the lighted mirror on
the passenger sun visor.

what i did was to lower the front housing, then remove all the ducting
all the way to the rear. then i started putting the ducting back up,
one piece at a time. i used some epoxy glue and glued a short strip of
aluminum (about 1/16th inch thick, and almost the width of the
interior of the ducting) to the top of the ducting, where the screw
holes are. i then drilled new holes for the screws, and put THREE
sheet metal screws up into the roof metal (use short screws, no longer
than the original screws ... the roof is double-walled, but you don't
want to use long screws and puncture the outer roof panel!).
when i put the last piece (the front housing) back up, i epoxied some
smaller pieces of aluminum sheet where the screws go up, over by the
doors, as those parts of the housing were starting to crack.

so far, it's held up very well ... and i didn't have to let the
ham-fisted gorillas at the local dealer work on my bus! :) actually,
i'd already fixed it by the time the recall notice arrived in the
mail.

hope it helps. good luck!
joel