a/c drain hose, revisited

[rocco16 at sbcglobal.net (LEF)]

Silicone works well.
So does dish soap.
Vegetable oil does, too, in a pinch.
And there are commercial rubber lubes (which I get free samples of at work) that, of course, work best of all.
....lots of options.

 Speaking of AC drains.  My 'Roc has been fogging the windows big time when I go to defrost....started doing this last fall on a trip back to Kansas.
  I finally took to the Bentley (yeah, I'm real slow...) for some research.  
  Come to find out the drain is quite accessible, so pulled it off on Monday.  Whoops!!!  AT LEAST two quarts of nice, clean water came pouring out of the heater/AC box!!....some of which went right on my new Lloyd's mat!   (Two weeks of record heat and humidity in July leads to lots of AC use and lots of condensation....)  
 The tube itself was jammed full of leaves, twigs, insect parts, mud, etc. ...to the point that water would not pass, at all.  One blast of the air hose and it was clear.  Three minutes later and everything was buttoned up.

No more fog on the windows and the AC works even better than before (if that's possible).
 Why didn't I do this a year ago????   'Cause I'm stupid/lazy, I suppose.

Learn from my mistakes, Grasshoppers of the Scirocco world.

larry
sandiego16v

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: T. Reed 
  To: scirocco-l@scirocco.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 8:48 PM
  Subject: a/c drain hose, revisited


  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

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