Builds Car souq pickup

[WarDamnEagle]

So a couple of days ago I bought some AC evaporator coil cleaner and thought I would just drop the bottom half of the housing and maybe drop the fan housing at the same time and do some cleaning. Well when I saw how much incredibly fine dust there was in the system I couldn't help myself. I think @Honger calls this fine dust "fesh fesh" which I presume is UAE slang for bad stuff. Oddly enough, although the walls of every duct and frankly everything behind the dash are coated with this stuff, the coils, at least what I can see when I pull the housing apart a 1/2" or so don't look that bad. Maybe fesh fesh doesn't stick so well to aluminum? ........or maybe I just don't have a good view of the coils.

So with some encouragement on the phone yesterday from Chris @c2dfj45 I tore into things today between work calls. To be honest I'm a little queasy at this point that I won't be able to get this puppy back together. We shall see.

 

[Gun Runner 5]

I’ve seen where others have had similar issues and have cut the patch from a section under the seat. No one sees that section and the materials match.

 

[c2dfj45]

So a couple of days ago I bought some AC evaporator coil cleaner and though I would just drop the bottom half of the housing and maybe drop the fan housing at the same time and do some cleaning. Well when I saw how much incredibly fine dust there was in the system I couldn't help myself. I think @Honger calls this fine dust "fesh fesh" which I presume is UAE slang for bad stuff. Oddly enough, although the walls of every duct and frankly everything behind the dash are coated with this stuff, the coils, at least what I can see when I pull the housing apart a 1/2" or so don't look that bad. Maybe fesh fesh doesn't stick so well to aluminum? ........or maybe I just don't have a good view of the coils.

So with some encouragement on the phone yesterday from Chris @c2dfj45 I tore into things today between work calls. To be honest I'm a little queasy at this point that I won't be able to get this puppy back together. We shall see.

View attachment 2410250

Hopefully not too many pocket parts left over after you're done!

Looks a lot cleaner than our Troopy....

 

[WarDamnEagle]

So I have two questions. One, I still haven't managed to drop the blower housing bottom or, more importantly, the evaporator coil housing. I'm not really interested in pulling everything beyond where I am as I suspect that would get into water and A/C plumbing. So if you can't drop them without pulling the units then I will clean everything in place as best I can and hopefully manage to reassemble everything.

Second question concerns the fresh air intake. I pulled the cowl and there are two plastic screens under the cowl. It appears that the air is pulled in through those screens and eventually winds up in the blower housing. I assume the plenum under the screens is designed to divert any water that enters away from the ductwork that connects to the blower housing? Can I wash all this out without removing anything else? Seems like worse case I just get some water on the floors and I have the drains open anyway. The blower motor is pulled by the way so the housing is open at the bottom.

Pics of the offending housing bottoms and the screens under the cowl.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

I’ve seen where others have had similar issues and have cut the patch from a section under the seat. No one sees that section and the materials match.

Actually my 25 yo original mat matched almost perfectly and I cut the material from the same area. Again, it's not a "can't tell it's patched" vinyl repair but it will do; especially in such a generally hidden area.

 

[Honger]

So a couple of days ago I bought some AC evaporator coil cleaner and though I would just drop the bottom half of the housing and maybe drop the fan housing at the same time and do some cleaning. Well when I saw how much incredibly fine dust there was in the system I couldn't help myself. I think @Honger calls this fine dust "fesh fesh" which I presume is UAE slang for bad stuff. Oddly enough, although the walls of every duct and frankly everything behind the dash are coated with this stuff, the coils, at least what I can see when I pull the housing apart a 1/2" or so don't look that bad. Maybe fesh fesh doesn't stick so well to aluminum? ........or maybe I just don't have a good view of the coils.

So with some encouragement on the phone yesterday from Chris @c2dfj45 I tore into things today between work calls. To be honest I'm a little queasy at this point that I won't be able to get this puppy back together. We shall see.

View attachment 2410250

I actually learned the term "fesh-fesh" from a Saudi friend. =) But have heard it in the UAE as well.

 

[Honger]

So I have two questions. One, I still haven't managed to drop the blower housing bottom or, more importantly, the evaporator coil housing. I'm not really interested in pulling everything beyond where I am as I suspect that would get into water and A/C plumbing. So if you can't drop them without pulling the units then I will clean everything in place as best I can and hopefully manage to reassemble everything.

You can't drop the units without detaching the AC refrigerant lines at the firewall in the engine bay... if you don't want to discharge your system then you can't pull the housings out.

Second question concerns the fresh air intake. I pulled the cowl and there are two plastic screens under the cowl. It appears that the air is pulled in through those screens and eventually winds up in the blower housing. I assume the plenum under the screens is designed to divert any water that enters away from the ductwork that connects to the blower housing? Can I wash all this out without removing anything else? Seems like worse case I just get some water on the floors and I have the drains open anyway. The blower motor is pulled by the way so the housing is open at the bottom.

Pics of the offending housing bottoms and the screens under the cowl.

View attachment 2410254

View attachment 2410255

Generally you can hose this area down. My understanding, and memory, of the area under those screens is that water can enter and it won't necessarily flow into the intake of the blower though some may splash in... there's sheet metal lip I think. The interior of the blower motor housing may trap a bit of water running down into it... but nothing substantial that won't dry out.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

I actually learned the term "fesh-fesh" from a Saudi friend. =) But have heard it in the UAE as well.

I'll have to ask someone about that.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

You can't drop the units without detaching the AC refrigerant lines at the firewall in the engine bay... if you don't want to discharge your system then you can't pull the housings out.



Generally you can hose this area down. My understanding, and memory, of the area under those screens is that water can enter and it won't necessarily flow into the intake of the blower though some may splash in... there's sheet metal lip I think. The interior of the blower motor housing may trap a bit of water running down into it... but nothing substantial that won't dry out.

It would make sense to me that you could drop the bottom of the coil housing without pulling everything to either clean your drain or clean your coils. .....but maybe not.

 

[coldtaco]

If you run a hose in the boot cowl area I would not worry about getting water down the air intake part since you have removed the blower. Maybe put a pan under the area that the blower is. The picture shows the debris stopper above the air intake. There is some kind of foam sealer between this piece of metal and the bottom of the boot cowl. This foam degrades over time so you might get some water to leak by.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

If you run a hose in the boot cowl area I would not worry about getting water down the air intake part since you have removed the blower. Maybe put a pan under the area that the blower is. The picture shows the debris stopper above the air intake. There is some kind of foam sealer between this piece of metal and the bottom of the boot cowl. This foam degrades over time so you might get some water to leak by.

Thanks; that's very helpful.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Since today is my "Saturday" I was able to get a lot done without interruption. At least until some friends showed up about an hour before dark and that was that.

I finished scrubbing everything clean this morning and started reassembly. I found rather quickly that it goes back together much easier than it came apart. Maybe that's because I was clueless on the proper order for disassembly. I'm sure I'm not reassembling in the most efficient manner either but it's working and I feel a bit relieved that it will go back together. At some point I did decide to replace all of the foam seals on the ducts except for the large flat ones on the dampers. I will definitely go back in and replace those at some point but I couldn't find the material over here on short notice. Next door neighbor saved me again as he had just the right size of peel and stick foam as the local version of a hardware store was out. He's a bit of a motor head too, has several quad and dirt bikes that he and his children play with.

Here's a few photos of today's progress.

All scrubbed as best I could.

And here's how far I got. I was struggling with the speedometer cable when the friends showed up. Have to tackle that in the morning and button everything else up.

 

[AirheadNut]

Looks great, what a clean interior! That speedometer cable can be difficult to get hooked back up, getting everything lined up just right in the space available is tricky. Another "small hands" job.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Finished up at 12:35 today. It should have been 10:35 or so but as I was starting to install the final assembly, the glove box, I noticed that one bag still had several bolts left. It was the bag labeled "dash pad". Ugh! Inside were several 10mm bolts and two largish screws. We're not talking one or two screws here.

The last thing I wanted after Chris's "pocket parts" comment was to come back here admitting defeat so I started tearing things back apart. I basically tore everything back out and eventually found where everything went. Two went under the steering column. One was back right of the instrument cluster and one was in the dash pad - a bolt I should have never removed. A whopping 4 bolts and the two screws went into the meter Altimeter/temperature assembly. That thing is definitely not a "break away" design. Turns out though I'm getting much faster at pulling these assemblies!

I also found a connector that I didn't reconnect while I was in there. I had used a whole can of evaporator coil cleaning spray before buttoning up the housing and had been running the engine and the A/C while I was reassembling the last bits. I should have known something was wrong as the temperatures weren't showing up on the dash display. All good now.

I have to go out of town to our actual operations area tomorrow night for 2 1/5 weeks but managed to get the order in for the Damplifier Pro, Spectrum sludge and some Heat Wave Pro Jute. Those materials should arrive before I return and I can start working on the floor, doors, and roof.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Looks great, what a clean interior! That speedometer cable can be difficult to get hooked back up, getting everything lined up just right in the space available is tricky. Another "small hands" job.

I'm sure everyone but me knows to disconnect the first clamp by the brake booster; that gives you a couple of inches extra to play with. Even with that my hands weren't going back there. I used a good sized pair of channel locks and managed to get it back on.

 

[c2dfj45]

Wow that truck is clean!

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Well as it turns out you can fix the "droop" on the dash pod. Just takes some 2-part epoxy, a few clamps, and patience.


And yes, that's really 47C or 116 F.

 

[c2dfj45]

Added to the list of things to do tomorrow!

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Just doing some day dreaming over here. No price listed on this one but a white one with a few less options but same drivetrain, etc. is listed on the same website at around $33K US. Wouldn’t that be nice.

Toyota Land Cruiser Hard Top LX76 4.5 T-DSL ,WINCH, DIFF LOCK for sale

 

[Gun Runner 5]

Just doing some day dreaming over here. No price listed on this one but a white one with a few less options but same drivetrain, etc. is listed on the same website at around $33K US. Wouldn’t that be nice.

Toyota Land Cruiser Hard Top LX76 4.5 T-DSL ,WINCH, DIFF LOCK for sale

It’s probably just me but the wood trim (assuming it’s wood) just looks out of place in a Land Cruiser.