Leak

Marv came over and, graciously, put R134a into The Beast again Sunday night.

The AC ran great all the way to the dentist and back yesterday.

It was inop this morning.

I couldn't find any evidence of leaks at the lines, so I jacked her up and looked for the drain port that lets condensation escape the HVAC box.

I didn't need to find the port because the black light showed a streak of dye down the transmission tunnel aft of it.

My worst fears are realized.

It's the evaporator.

That requires the complete disassembly of the dash to access it.

On the plus side of the ledger, the evaporator is less than $100.

But...

If you're in there, might as well do the heater core too because sure as shit, that thing will start leaking the moment you button it back up.

Another $100.

But!  GM parts dealers still have a complete HVAC box with blower assembly for about $500.  One of the local places even lets me skip the $250 to $300 shipping!

$300 more, but it's got all new stuff.  Many of them are already discontinued, like the actuators for the flapper doors.

Since the entire assembly has to come out any way, getting a complete assembly actually saves some labor.

And it leaves me with a complete unit to rebuild.  So when the next time this happens, I can swap assemblies.

Victory?