Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 10:49:11 -0400
Reply-To: Rick Koller <rkoller@HELIX.NIH.GOV>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Rick Koller <rkoller@HELIX.NIH.GOV>
Subject: a/c refurbished (long)
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Vanagonauts,
I thought I'd post my a/c repair adventure for the List's benefit. First
I's like to thank again those of you who responded to my first cry for
help. I have a '90 syncro-westie whose a/c was condemned (and a '91 gl
whose a/c is also suspect) last summer by a local vw dealer to the tune of
$1800.00 in repairs. Naturally this unpleasant news put me in serious
denial and I put off repairs till this spring because the compressor was
still working at the time (it expired this spring). After consulting the
List I got a few phone numbers for non-dealer parts suppliers and started
calling. Camelback VW was not able to help at all and I started with
Vintage Air in Texas. They carry the compressor but were out of stock so I
found another supplier in Ft. Worth called Southeast Air Inc. 800-274-1251,
817-568-1251 very nice people to deal with. They needed the part and model
number which are both on a sticker on the side of the compressor. The
compressor was new and included the clutch for $180.00, I also needed the
expansion valve which was $28.00. The compressor was identical to the
factory unit except for the electrial connector which was different. This
was easily remedied by simply cutting off the VW connector an splicing it
on to new compressor's wires. I got a new receiver dryer for $65.00 at a
local FLAPS. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to install these components (
we're going to Florida Keys) but the system needed flushing anyway so I
took it to a local a/c shop to do the install. Since this was a camper I
removed the rear cabinet that covers the evaporator and holds the fan
blowers so the a/c tech wouldn't have to spend 8 extra hours doing that.
Bentley covers this quite well and, other than the time it took, it was
straight forward, reinstalling was a bit more trouble especially when
reattaching the drain hoses to the condensation tray. There isn't much room
to manuever and those hoses are a real stiff plastic. After everything was
installed I now once again have "cool".
Rick Koller
'90 syncro-westie (cool)
'91 gl auto box (not so cool)
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