Recirc repair on a '91(long)

[Kneale Brownson <knotnook@traverse.com>]

I completed repair of my failed HVAC recirculation door on the '91 200tq20v
today.  The problem was the spring ate through the cheesy plastic bar on
the framework in the evaporator housing, allowing the interior firewall
door to remain open.   Here's how it went:

Because I'm one of those short, stubby folks (read even thicker bodied than
headed), with a short neck and trifocals, I need all the room available, so
I removed the glove compartment.  That's quite a trick in the '91. In my
'86 and '87  5ktq's, it's just a screw or two and pull it loose from the
pivot peg on the right-hand side of the box, but in the '91, you need to
remove one screw at the back and loosen two in the front that are hidden
from view by the top of the box, but are available via the first holes in
from the front on each side.  The screws are 4 mm sunken hex (Alan) head,
and there's not enough room for a 3/8 drive hex bit socket and ratchet
head, so I held the socket in place with a finger and turned it with an
open end wrench.  A 1/4 drive hex bit socket might let you use the ratchet.
 You only need to loosen these two screws.  Two more 4 mm hex bit screws
hold tabs that can be turned sideways after the screws are loosened.  One
more screw on the bottom of the trim piece at the end of the dash lets you
pull that piece down and out of the way so that you can slide the box to
the right.  The metal tabs on the top of the metal lid for the box are made
so you can slide them  sideways off the screws without having to remove the
screws completely.  

With the trim piece (plastic grillwork) to which the back of the box is
screwed pulled toward the seat and swung sideways, you have all the room
necessary for working on the recirculation door.

As I said, in my case (and the common fault for which the factory metal
"fix" is supplied), the spring that pressures the door to keep it closed
unless the A/C is operating and recirculation of cabin air is needed had
broken the plastic bar to which it is fastened.  I could not see this by
looking, and had to feel the plastic bar to realize it'd been cut through.
I didn't have the factory metal repair kit, so I fashioned a U-shaped piece
of fairly heavy galvanized tin I had in my garage so it would fit over the
top of the plastic arms that support the broken bar, and then I bent a
smaller piece of the same tin so it went around the base of the "U" and
formed a small tab that would hang down between the plastic arms.  I
drilled a small hole in that tab to hold the box-end of the spring at
approximately the same distance from the door as it would have been if
attached to the broken plastic bar.

I found all this easier to scope out and measure/bend/fit in place with the
door removed from its supporting arms.  The two screws near either end of
the door make this connection.  The plastic hook in the center of the door
to which  the spring is attached can be removed from the door by inserting
an 8 mm hex bit and turning either direction 1/2 turn.  I attached this
hook to the spring and then used two finger to hold it in place against the
otherwise loose door while I turned the plastic piece the 1/2 turn to
relock it into place in the door.  Then I rescrewed the door to the two arms.

After I'd decided what to do to fix the broken plastic, all the fitment and
reinstallation of the spring and door was much easier than figuring out how
to remove the glovebox.   I anticipated something similar to the earlier
Type 44's, but this was entirely different.  I have the Bentley  for '91
200's on microfiche and tried to figure out how the box installed from the
single page devoted to that end of the dash, but the pictures were
completely different from what I finally figured out, as described above.
This glovebox is much more secure with the different system, and I'd have
been a pretty happy camper if the attachment had been depicted in the
Bentley.  The page of the fiche did include the statement, "assembly may
vary with models".  This glovebox, by the way, is the one that rides
forward and down on glides like you'd see in a cabinet drawer, as opposed
to the earlier Type 44 boxes that swing open on pivot pegs.

If you have a '91 (and possibly newer S4/S6) with the glider system, you
might want to make a note of the significantly different attachment system.

Kneale Brownson