You are gonna look in that window some day and and see a big fat mouse looking back out at you.

 

Where are the pictures ??

All I see are two red Xs.

 

they're showing up for me. i didn't delete or relocate them on photobucket.

i attached them. they should show up now.

 

I can see them good

 

I also could only see the Red x's until it were just reposted.
You could also use a roll of Foil HVAC tape but it wouldn't look as nice.

Jim

 

Great mental image

 

Well I did my box yesterday. All told the entire fix took about an hour or so. Total repair bill was about $20. I went to O'reilley's and bought a set of their el-cheapo rubber mud flaps that came with 8 self drilling screws. I went home and cut a 5" x 7" template out of the cardboard that the mudflaps came with and used that as my template. I then traced the outline onto the air box with a Sharpie. I then guesstimated a 1/2" on the inside of each line. This was where I screwed the cover back on. Along this line I drilled numerous small holes and then used a razor knife to cut out the plastic. As a side not I found it easier to get the razor knife in the hole and somewhat started then gently tap with a hammer and it went through the plastic easily. Anyway I used the same 5" x 7" template to trace the outline onto the mud flap then cut out the cover plate with a pair of scissors.

I did have quite a bit of stuff in the box. Once I cleaned out what I could by hand I used my hose to wash through the coil and flush what I could.

This morning on my way to work was the first time I've had to actually turn my blower down cause I was too cold.

 

So when your looking back in there you'll see the thingy with the fins that looks like a radiator and you just spray that with water??? wheres all the dirt and water and stuff go??

 

The drain line which is behind the evaporator coil from your point of view looking in. The bottom of the box is sealed and I sprayed it with the hose and out the bottom of the truck came a shower of trash down the drain line. It was mostly loose dirt and fine particulate matter since the fins of the coil caught most of the trash.

 

The local refrigerator shop has some foaming aerosol spray that will make an evaporator as clean as a whistle; spray it on, let it foam a while, rinse it off.

It is also a good idea to pump-spray some liquid Lysol, or Pine Sol, or somesuch through the evaporator, better yet while the blower is on HIGH and blowing out the A/C vents.

This will kill a lot of the mold/mildew bacteria that is living in the system, along with making a nice clean smell.

 

well i was 5 mins away from finishing the project. i went to home depot for some speed nuts and they only had 6 in stock. an absolutely NO overstock! i couldn't believe it. i could buy the 6 they had but i'd have to wait until next monday to go back for 6 more. instead, i'm going to west marine tomorrow for all the speed nuts and stainless machine screws to go with it.

 

got my evaporator coil cleaned up. not a whole lot of stuff, but enough. got it all vacuumed out, sprayed it down with water to get excess dirt particles. not much accumulation on the fins of the coil itself either.



here's the 1/8" piece of aluminum which i cut a 7"x5" section out of, drilled 3/16" holes and sanded it since it was already a little scratched up when i got it.



i used #10-11/32 speed nuts and #10 metal screws when fastening the plate to the evaporator box. before i mounted the plate, i turned the blower on high and sprayed the coil with lysol to clean things up a bit and then used glass cleaner cuz the lysol was the original scent and it didn't smell so great. i ran a bead of silicone around the backside of the plate and mounted it. now i'm just trying to decide if i should throw a couple coats of flat black on it, or leave it. i may end up painting it eventually.



result of clean-up... the a/c seems to run a little cooler. again, there wasn't much debris piled inside so it wasn't a huge difference. more so a feeling of satisfaction and pride. if anyone asks, i have a story to tell. i suppose it won't be quite that long of a story though, but i'm still proud of my work

 

When I read "speed nuts", I thought I was going to learn of some strange new magical fastener of which I had not yet seen; then, I see your pictures and they are plain old U-clips.


What "grit" did you sand the aluminum with ??

What type of sander ??

Thanks.

 

I just shined a flaslight through the vent and couldn't even see the coil for all the crap covering it. I know what I'll be doing Saturday. Thanks for all the great info.

 

i was under the impression they were called nut-zerts for the longest time. i heard a couple different terms for them when i went looking for them. extruded u-nuts, nut clips, speed nuts. so i agreed with speed nuts. whatever. i had to spread the clip a bit so it'd slip over the plastic of the box. they were close to no being big enough period.

i used 120 grit on a 5" orbital sander. just buzzed it to take the shine off and hit the sides and edges to take any sharp points off. turned out nice too. at first i sanded it in preparation for paint. then i mounted it and thought "hmmm that looks kinda good!" so i'm still indecisive about whether i should paint it or not.