> He has a moisture leak on the carpets - both > driver's and passenger side. If the car has a manual transmission, it is possible that the dampness on the drivers side is from leaking clutch fluid. Moisture on the passenger side can be expected due to condensate forming on the outside of the a/c housing. I currently have the housing out of my dash while I replace the evaporator, so I'm taking pictures and making notes for a technical page. If the drain backs up far enough while the movement of the car causes water in there to slosh, then drips can make it to the drivers side front floor. So it is possible for a clogged drain to wet both sides of the car. > Where is the a/c drain plug located? There is no drain "plug" unfortunately. I have heard of people cutting a hole in the a/c housing under the dash to provide access to clean out the drain, but this seems like over-kill to me. To make sure that the drain line is unobstructed and working properly, you will need to find both ends of it. This line is an otherwise straight flexible hose with a 90 degree bend under the dash where it hooks to the bottom of the a/c housing. This point is located on the passenger side of the car just over the passenger side of the fiberglass underbody's center hump. You may need to pull the carpet back to see it. It is such a tight fit that there is no point in trying to disconnect it. That is the reason for people cutting an access hole next to it. The other end of the line is easy to find provided that the factory didn't goof. I've worked on a goofed car already. The drain line is supposed to run along the left side of the frame and terminate at about the point where the pair of flexible fuel lines hook to the metal lines at the frame. The end should allow condensate to drip between the frame and the right front wheel. You can access this point either by removing the fuel pump access cover under the spare tire or by jacking the car up and taking the wheel off. I prefer to attack it from the top. It is not uncommon for this line to terminate in the wrong place. At least several cars were assembled such that the line instead points toward the drivers side of the car where it is pinched between the fiberglass underbody and the fuel tank. If this is the case, it will be a challenge to reach in there and pull it out without having to remove the fuel tank. Unless you are a surgeon with probing lenses, there is no way to see if the elbow at the housing is unclogged. Use a piece of coat hanger or similar wire to stick through the end of the line to drag out any debris you can with it. It helps to bend a loop in the end and make sure it doesn't poke through the line or snag. You may want to try back flushing with a garden hose. But it is very easy to flood the front floor doing this. (Ask me how I know. :-) The owner of the car was watching under the dash while I turned the hose on. We were expecting to see it drip from the passenger side, but instead it poured from the drivers side. For future reference, I plan to measure how much water the housing will hold so that we will know just how much backflushing it would take before flooding. It is probably around a liter. The way the system is designed presents some interesting problems. Leaves enter the housing via the grille below the windshield. These dump in on top of the blower and accumulate on the input side of the evaporator. For debris to make it to the drain, it has to filter through the evaporator. And of course it is bad to have it continually sit in a damp heap of compost. To make things even worse, there is a wire mesh screen on the drain side to insure that larger particles stick in the evaporator. Remove the blower motor and reach your hand through the hole to dig out any leaves you find. Be careful not to damage the blower motor resistor pack. >From the outside it appears as a group of wires terminating on the a/c housing next to the blower. From inside, it is a bundle of delicate air-cooled coils of resistive wire. You may prefer to remove the two screws holding it in to get it out of the way. It unplugs from the wires, but rust may have seized it on. If it works, there is no point in breaking it trying to take it apart. As you reach your hand through the blower hole toward the center of the car, you will feel the evaporator oriented at an angle. Be careful not to bend the delicate fins. If you have never seen one, it looks similar to a condenser coil or radiator. Scoop as much of the compost as you can out of there using your fingers. It is not possible to reach the drain from the blower motor hole because the evaporator totally blocks the path. Let us know what you find. We are getting ready to put up a web page full of technical procedures. You are welcome to contribute. Walt ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Looking for a more powerful website? Try GeoCities for $8.95 per month. Register your domain name (http://your-name.com). More storage! No ads! http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info http://us.click.yahoo.com/aHOo4D/KJoEAA/MVfIAA/HliolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: DMCForum-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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