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Oh, this was much more unpleasant than dropping a transmission or doing ball joints.
the difficult parts:
-finding very large wrenches to get the evaporator-to-pipe connections apart at the firewall. I don't think any other fasteners on the car are even remotely as large.
-dealing with the screws for the airbox. Several are very hard to access and several are impossible to see. One has a section of wiring harness ziptied to it, which involves cutting the ziptie without cutting the wires in order to get to the screw head. Entirely by feel.
-getting the lower half of the airbox back on straight while getting the drain tube back through the hole in the firewall and keeping the evaporator lined up correctly, while the seam between evaporator halves is slathered with a sticky black goo to stop air leaks. I had to rip foam insulation off the floor near the drain tube hole to accomplish this.
-removing the blower motor from the airbox, I wiggled it wrong and cracked the squirrel cage. Ooops. Tip: you CAN NOT glue/epoxy/heat weld the squirrel cage back together, it will fly apart and spread shards of plastic throughout the airbox.
I bought a new evaporator from Tasca Volvo, and sprayed it with AC Delco "Cooling Coil Coating" (part 15-102) to hopefully protect the evap from corrosion. It is scary expensive at a GM dealer, somewhat cheaper via Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/ACDelco-15-102-Cooling-Coil-Coating/dp/B001A4YMP4
I don't really remember how long I spent, total, on the project, although the car was off the road for several weeks (parts delays factored into it, also). Because I had a very bent (but not yet leaking) condenser and wanted to install a variable orifice valve, there was more to my misery than just the evaporator. But I do know that I fought with the evaporator reassembly for an entire afternoon. And yes, I did end up with a screw left over from the airbox, never found the empty hole.
In short: I don't drink anymore, but this project made me remember why I used to.
john
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1989 245 245K / 1993 945 131K
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