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Date:         Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:44:45 -0600
Reply-To:     Mike South <msouth@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mike South <msouth@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Stuff I did on my van today (finishing heater box refurb and misc
              dash-off stuff)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Tonight I spent a little time trying to improve the chances that I can give my wife a receipt for a successful inspection in a Valentine's card (this year).

My primary goal was to finish up the heater box refurb. (Thanks to Alistair and Ken for their help in identifying my heater core airflow restrictor, btw!). Tonight I pulled the lower half of the box to look at the foam on the flaps.

The lower half of the box has two sets of flaps. The long set is mounted on a rod that connects to one of the control wires, and there are two flaps which are controlled by air flow and/or gravity only.

I got the long set off first. I had all my stuff ready to go to make replacement foam, but when I took the plastic bracket off the first one, the foam seemed to be in perfectly good shape. I compressed it, rolled it back along the length of the metal flap, and generally messed around with it to ensure that I wasn't fooling myself, and it looked like it was completely fine. I wasn't about to replace eight pieces of foam that looked like they had handled the past 25+ years without my interference, so I went on to look at the two flapper ones.

Their foam was much more in the "deteriorated to sandpaper" condition that the other ones had been in. Because these are controlled by air flow I did not want to use my replacement solution on them. It seemed like my foam was probably a lot heavier than what had been on there originally. Also, at least one list member said that their van was working fine after having removed the remains of the foam altogether and not replacing it with anything. So, that was the route I went with them.

These flaps just click into place, and knowing that we are going on 30 years on those tiny pieces of plastic--both the little rod that it pivots on and the socket that holds the rod--I was pretty nervous about getting it out without breaking it. After a couple of false starts trying to get a zip tie and then a piece of metal strapping to wrap around it so I could pull it from the back, I finally found an old paint can opener that I was able to hook around the back of it.

You only have to get one side popped out, and then you can just slide it out of the other.

Fortunately the adhesive film that backed the old foam on was willing to be (laboriously) rolled off. Even though I distinctly remember telling myself to not pull out the other side until I had replaced the first one, I forgot, and didn't remember until I was half way through peeling the second one that I was going to use that one to tell me how to orient the first one when putting it back.. Oh well. I think I got them on there in the right direction, and without the foam it probably makes even less difference.

I also used a screwdriver to dig out the residue of the previously discovered (skeletonized) dead rodent and his nesting material/midden heap. Unscrewing the mount for the ballast resistor let me get at some of last remaining pockets ("pockets of remains"?).

I used soap and water to clean up as much of the box as possible, and also took the opportunity to wipe down all the surfaces in the van that were available due to the box's absence. I lubed the wiper linkage and put Peel-and-Seal on the top, front surfaces, finally crossing off a couple of remaining things on the "while the dash is off" to-do list.

One discovery that might be useful to people is that with the heater box completely removed you can see the clutch pin pretty well. This might be an option if you need to inspect/work with it.

Also, we replaced the phillips head bolts with hex heads. You might need a "slop" extension (I am definitely using one, I just don't know if it's definitively required) to get to it, but I think it's a better solution than having to worry about stripping them when they're already hard to get to.

It was easy to just take the stock bolt down to the Lowe's/Home Depot and put it in the pitch/diameter tester and get a replacement with a hex head. When replacing them we put masking tape around the washer and bolt to hold on to everything while getting it threaded. I had to take it back out shortly after it was replaced and the tape was still sticky, which made the washer much easier to find when the bolt came undone (since it was stuck to the socket, I mean).

The last thing I'm sure I'm going to do is to put critter screens over the openings.

I think I'm also going to replace the control wire that goes down through to the valve under the car, since I bent it while trying to bleed after replacing the front heater core.

After that, and possibly a wiring thing or two, it will be time to put the dash back on and see if it can pass inspection.

mike


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