>From: jgladu@bcm.tmc.edu (John Gladu)

>I wind up pulling the entire rear overhead A/C unit down because there
>simply isn't any other way.  And this takes removing the rear pillar covers
>too.  Hold up the unbolted unit with cardboard boxes.  Hope that the
>speaker tabs aren't torn off by reluctant-to-disconnect wires.  Pull the
>little grill out (with scary cracking and snapping noises while
>disassociating the light-colored outer material from the black inner
>material).  Vacuum the slarg off.

I have done that on our unit.  It's fun while trying to hold it up with your
head and disconnect everything from it at the same time.  You can use the
front seat headreats for support.

>Now it's creativity time...
>I covered all of the black surfaces on the top of the unit with 12" wide
>aluminized mylar (dumpster-booty from my NASA days) before bolting it back
>in place.  Hopefully, the mylar will help to keep the body of the A/C unit
>from hitting 140F (like the roof above it) when the critter has to sit in
>direct sunlight.  With my luck it will just keep the unit hotter, longer,
>by not allowing it to radiate any of its pent-up thermal energy.

I don't know how the rear units compare with the front unit like ours but
while I had it down I used duct tape to seal all openings and cracks.
It's warping in some places due to the supports being on the ends and the
extreme heat we get here.  So I added some more pop rivets to help close
some of the gaps.  That has helped a bit.  I'm afaid that in several years
the unit may fall due to old age.

Jonathan

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Jonathan Dove   jdove@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu
82 Rabbit PU, 83 GTI, 85 Vanagon, 87 Golf
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