Tom:

Welcome to the "Westy A/C foam bits club"   Yes, I spend the better part of
each stretch of warm weather picking up these little bits from all over the
place inside the van.  I think some people have pulled their A/C apart and
removed this material completely, but it appears to be such a huge job, that
I just live with it for now.  From what I understand, this is a pretty much
universal problem.  Steve Sittser has a good web page with a project report
of his mods of the A/C in his Westy.
http://members.aol.com/ssittservl/Westfalia/ACReport.htm

The water (condensation) is pooling in the A/C cabinet because your drain
hoses are plugged.  If I'm not mistaken, there should be a tube that runs
down inside the "vent grill" area just aft of the driver's side rear window.
Some people have reported good results blowing compressed air in from the
bottom to dislodge the gunk clogging it up.  Myself, I would be sure to
remove the gunk after dislodging it so that it didn't fall back into the
drain tube.

Based on my reading the list over the last few years, both these problems
are pretty common.

Brent Christensen
'89 GL Syncro Westy "Klaus"
Santa Barbara, CA

----- Original Message -----
From: "Penberthy, Thomas" <TPenberthy@creativepro.com>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2000 1:32 PM
Subject: Leaky A/C in an '89 Westy

> Imagine my partner's surprise...
>
> We're cruising into a left-hand turn at the bottom of a hill when she's
> doused with a stream of cold water raining down from above (she was in the
> back seat).
>
> I know enough about A/C to understand that it's condensation accumulation,
> but I don't know enough about Westy's to know where the run-off is
supposed
> to be going, and where it could be clogged up.
>
> A separate issue with my A/C: I'm noticing little foam bits on the floor
of
> the back of the van sometimes after running it. Is that normal, or is it
> something I should be worrying about?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> /tom