Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 18:41:47 EDT
Reply-To: Ssittservl@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: S Sittservl <Ssittservl@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: A/C Grey Filter Spewing
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> From: mayfly95@PAONLINE.COM (Mike)
>
> Does anyone remember who (Steve maybe?) posted something about a
> deteriating filter spitting out of the a/c vents? I thought I saved a
> copy to do the repair myself, but must have lost it with my hard drive
> format last week.
>
> My daughter almost ate a "french fry" alias piece of grey foam after I
> had the a/c on and we stopped.
>
> Would appreciate a repost or forward .. thanx
>
> mike
> 87 westy Rasputin
Mike -
Yup, I'm the one who had the spectacularly deteriorating A/C
filter wafting black snow throughout my van. I would say the
only remedy is to remove the evaporator housing and get
rid of the filter. I've got a description and a couple of blurry
pictures of this project at my web site,
members.aol.com/ssittservl/Westfalia.
Someone else wrote me recently asking for more detailed
instructions. A copy of what I sent him appears below.
Good luck with fixing this, and let me know if there's anything
I can do to help.
-Steven Sittser
-------------------------------------------
I mostly used the instructions in the Bentley manual. I don't have it
with me - it's in the van, which is at the shop - so unfortunately I can't
give you page references. However, I think everything was in the
section that covers removing the camper cabinetry - the closet, the
fridge, etc. It's possible I used some information from the A/C section
too.
Here's what I remember:
- First step is to take down the driver's side tray/curtain rail, above the
sink.
Otherwise, you can't get to some screws you need to get to in the plastic
A/C vent cowling. Bentley has step-by-step instructions on this somewhere.
This is a bit of a pain, because it has curtains attached to it, it's big
and
heavy, and it includes the wiring for the cabin light. I spent days with
this propped up on a box or something to avoid disconnecting the wires,
but that was silly - it's easy to disconnect the wires and reconnect them,
so you can get the whole assembly out of the van. You'll probably want
a friend to help with getting this down.
- Next is the metal trim strip that runs across the van in front of the vent
cowling. Basically, just a bunch of screws with plastic caps over them.
Use a knife or putty knife or something similar (strong & thin) to get under
the screw caps and pry them off.
- Next is the plastic vent cowling. It's in two pieces - the one big giant
obvious
piece, and a little L-shaped (or something like that) piece that fits over
by
the closet. This involves more capped screws from below, and some screws
you get to from above by removing the cushion from the upper bunk.
(I think you do the upper bunk screws first.) Now you're looking right into
the air blower.
- Next is the cold air return panel, which you get to from the rear van hatch.
Two obvious bolts hold it on.
- Next is the big wooden housing itself. This is a big pain to get down, and
an even bigger pain to get back up. The problem is that, once you remove
the bolts that hold it up, there are still hoses and wires getting in the
way, and
threatening to break if you let the housing drop before you manage to reach
in and disconnect them all. Oh, and the housing is pretty heavy, too.
Get a friend to help. Allow half an hour to an hour. (You might do it in
10 minutes if it goes smoothly, but it might not). Have some boxes or
crates
or something to stack on the rear bed, to a height of about 3 to 6 inches
below the housing - you can use them to support the housing while you reach
in to fiddle with hoses and wires. The height may need to be somewhat
adjustable. Have a good flashlight to shine into the housing. One person
works from the front of the housing, the other (doing most of the work)
works from the back. The person in back shouts "Quick, hold on to that!"
and "Ack! Don't let that fall!" a lot.
I think there are just 4 bolts holding up the housing, if I remember - two
from
below, one in the closet, and one in the little shelf to the left of the
main shelf
behind the evaporator.
The wires to worry about are the speaker wires, and the power to the
blowers.
I seem to remember that the resistor packs that control blower speed would
have been pretty awkward, except that the mountings for mine were broken
anyway. The hoses are the two drain hoses for the drip tray, and the
freon hoses to and from the evaporator. The drain hoses are the harder
ones to deal with, because they need to be disconnected, since they go
through holes in the sides of the housing. The freon hoses fit into a
"slot"
with an open top, so they can be left connected, and they aren't as much
of a problem.
The blowers and speakers will come come down with the housing; the
evaporator stays behind. There's also a separate plastic shroud that
fits in front of the evaporator.
All that's from memory, so if Bentley differs from me at any point, then
it's probably right, and I'm probably misremembering.
I removed the old foam (what was left of it) by clipping the bailing wire
that holds it to the evaporator. (Actually, it took me quite a while to
realize
that was what I needed to do - I spent a long time trying to remove it
without clipping the wire, out of fear that the wire was doing something
important.) I used a vaccuum and a brush to get rid of off the smaller bits.
As for replacing it - I didn't. I couldn't find anyone - VW dealer,
independant
VW service place, or the vanagon mailing list - who could tell me
confidently what this foam was for. Everyone seemed to think it wasn't
necessary. The A/C works just fine without it. (One day the van will
explode in a cloud of freon, and some wise German van-designer-turned-
insurance-investigator will say to me, "You didn't remove that foam
blanket around the evaporator, did you?")
Assembly is just like disassembly, but in the reverse order, and much
harder. Now instead of yanking those hoses and wires apart, you're
trying to connect them back together and get them in the right place,
all while making the heavy housing go up instead of down. Once the
evaporator housing is back up, though, everything else is relatively easy.
I suggest trying out the A/C without the vent cowling - the strong air stream
to the front seats is great. That's what convinced me to remove the interior
baffles and add the new foam "guides", to get a stronger central stream.
I was tempted to leave the vent cowling off altogether.
Replacing all the weatherstripping made a big difference in the noise, and I
think in the volume of air.
As always, once everything's taken apart, it's a good time to think about
any other enhancements you might want to make - running extra wiring,
etc..
Oh, and be sure to keep little labeled cups or something to keep track
of all the different screws and where they go. There are lots of them.
Recently, I pulled off the cold air return grill again and taped a piece
of window air conditioner filter behind it, to keep from getting too much
debris into the evaporator and blower. I don't know that it would ever
really be a problem, but I decided the filter couldn't hurt.
Good luck with the project. I found it to be a pretty big one, but
I'm very happy with the results - it was definitely worth while.
Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.
