a/c drain hose, revisited

[treed2 at wsu.edu (T. Reed)]

Okay, so I got my worldimpex order today. Thing is.. they sent the wrong 
a/c drain hose (which was the part that prompted the order in the first 
place) .. or so I thought!

In actuality, ETKA is wrong, at least for -my- 87 with A/C. The ETKA part 
number is 175 820 615, which is what I ordered. The correct part number is 
171 820 615 A. There's a large size difference (the right part is a much 
larger diameter) between the two.

Anyway, I yanked the old hose all the way out so I could check the part 
number, and while I had it out I took a closer look and decided that it 
could be repaired after all. Some careful supergluing and 5 minutes later 
it was (almost) good as new. It's not under pressure (like a cooling hose) 
or anything, so it should be fine.

Then came the painstaking re-installation process. I was pushing on the 
end so hard I thought my thumbnail was going to shatter, and it wasn't 
going anywhere.

Here's a little tip I just 'invented' tonight for installing these pain in 
the ass cone-shaped rubber end pieces (I imagine it would work for 
ordinary grommets as well): give the business end a little squirt of 
silicone spray lube. After doing this, the end popped right in to place on 
the first try, and even pivoted around smoothly- which I've never seen 
happen before.

Kinda obvious, I guess.. but worth mentioning unless you want a sore, 
swollen, red thumb for the next few hours. This isn't the first time I've 
done battle with this type of problem. Getting the A/C firewall hose 
grommets back in was a terrible pain as well. I wish I'd thought of this 
back then, so I decided I'd share.

-Toby