Evaporator lines. How do I?

[Irish Pride]

Replacing my AC. The lower evaporator line wasn't connected on my car so I didn't have to go thru the trouble of disconnecting it. Now I'm trying to get everything back in the car and I can't get the lower line on to the pipe. There isn't enough room in between the lower evaporator pipe and the rear exhaust manifold. Is there a trick to getting this line on the pipe?

 

[rubydist]

yeah, its not fun...

I think I loosened the big plastic nuts that hold the evaporator housing to the dash, so I could push the whole assembly into the cabin a ways so that I could wiggle the hose fitting into the evap. Its been a while, so I don't recall if I had to loosen the whole dash, or if I could just push the evap / heater core housing into the cabin...

(and if recall, you need to be 8 feet tall with arms the thickness of a 3 year old to reach down in there to do all the connecting) I think I was actually laying on top of the engine to get the hoses connected.

 

[Irish Pride]

I can get my hand to the lower pipe no problem and I can get the tip of the connector on the hose to the end of the pipe but there just isn't enough room to line it up and slide it in. Just need maybe an extra 1/4" of room. And here I was thinking all day that the hard part was done and putting it back together tonight would be no problem.

 

[Irish Pride]

Oh yeah, I had to pull the new accumulator out 5 times to tweek it here and there to get it to fit right. The only piece that wasn't NOS.

 

[ctubutis]

You might try lifting/moving/wiggling the engine/transaxle around a bit with a floor jack, the rubber bushings have a little bit of play in them and that might provide enough room.

I don't remember exactly what I did but like the guy above, I remember laying on top of the engine and the entire process sucked.