Date:         Sat, 8 Apr 2006 03:12:51 -0700
Reply-To:     Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Subject:      Re: air conditioner
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
              reply-type=original

The plastic tabs with the three bolt holes are broken off of both sides of
my A/C evap housing- I understand it's a pretty common problem, if not the
default condition at this point in these vehicles' life cycles.
It wasn't sagging but I had the feeling it was about to slip down, if not
come down altogether. At the same time as I was contemplating this, or maybe
the reason I was contemplating it, was that I wanted to install some rear
speakers, as mine were missing. It then occurred to me that the weight of
the speakers might be enough to start the avalanche. I didn't want to put
speakers in the stock location anyway because I wanted something that would
perform better than two small speakers in a common air space.
My solution to both problems was to take some angled steel- don't really
know what to call it, but the piece was about three feet long with two sides
at a 90 degree angle and the sides were about 1.5 inches wide- got it at
Home Depot. I cut two pieces of about maybe ten inches each and drilled
holes in one side toward one end that matched the bolt holes, with the
'open' side of the angle oriented to the bottom middle of the van, if that
makes sense. I hung a shelf from the part that stuck out past the evap
housing towards the front of the van. I put the speakers (a pair of
three-ways each in their own enclosure) on the shelf. The middle of the
shelf just clears the A/C tunnel, and the evap housing rests on the 'back'
part of the angle metal. I painted the whole thing more-or-less to match. I
sort of put it together on the fly... if I decide to make it permanent I'll
rebuild it so that it looks more like it belongs in the van, to whatever
extent that's possible.

Anyway that's a long way of saying you can take a small piece of angled
metal and easily create a small brace that will hold the evap housing up
just fine.

As I understand it, and I'm sure somebody will correct me if I'm wrong,
driving around with your windows open consumes more gas from the drag effect
than running the A/C does, at least at highway speeds.

Cya,
Robert

----- Original Message -----
From: "William Lindberg" <supersamadhi@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 9:47 PM
Subject: air conditioner


> 86 vanagon gl
>
> My air conditioner is sagging and I have proped it up with two shower
> curtan rods.  I feel like tearing it down but I'm sure some of you out
> there have seen this problem before and may have some suggestions for
> fixing this problem.  It seems though as gas prices continue to rise that
> I might need to just get used to the heat as the air conditioner will just
> reduce the efficiency of an engine that already doesn't get great gas
> mileage.  Don't get me wrong I love my vanagon and drive it almost every
> day.