Date:         Mon, 31 Mar 97 16:32:46 CST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: AC Blowing Out Black Material

On Mon, 31 Mar 1997 12:57:56 -0600 Fast, Timothy said:
>Lately when I have been running the A/C on my 88 Westy the unit has been
>blowing out bits of a black plastic material that looks like it is from
>some kind of air filter that has been chopped up by the A/C fan.  The
>A/C seems to work OK but I wonder if I should be concerned about this,
>what is goning on, and whether I should have it fixed.

it's not getting  "chopped up", it's just falling apart. and mine has been
running fine without it for about three years now. the biggest concern i
had was being careful about drinking anything in an open cup while the a/c
was running! :)   i haven't tried to replace the filter cause the a/c housing
is such a pain to lower. and it's VERY heavy. :(

>Also is it possibe to upgrade the A/C on an 88 Westy to run on the new
>(R134?) refigerent? Are there kits available and who should I have do
>it. Hopefully not my VW dealership.  As you may know the A/C on an 88 is
>different, the entire unit is in the rear roof with outlits in the rear
>only (beacuse of the pop-top).

no known kits yet. VWOA claimed they were looking into it, but the price/cost
of the R-12 has dropped back down, so you'll probably be better off money-
wise just getting the original system fixed and recharged. what i've found
over the years is that if you run the system at least 15-20 minutes EVERY
week or ten days, it'll stay lubricated and keep its Freon for a lot lot
longer.

joel