Ugh! A/C Gasket Replacement

My A/C has been leaking a bit and then it started leaking a bit more, so I decided to go ahead and replace the gasket. I found some excellent instructions here and a few videos so I felt armed for the task (with the help of my husband and his long arms).

The pup is mine, so I did all of the first steps to crank her up, remove bolts, unplug things and then crank her down again to remove the cover.

Then, when I went to move the actual A/C unit I discovered that a previous owner or a helpful service department had "fixed" the gasket at least once before by layering a thick (2") wide strip of glue or caulk around the roof and setting the gasket back in place. I wound up having to leverage the A/C off with boards to get it "unstuck" and then I spent the better part of two hours scraping 10-15 year old glue/caulk off the roof of the camper before I could start scraping the glue residue off the A/C unit from the previous gasket.

I didn't trust the roof to hold much more than a knee on plywood, so I used every contortion in the book on a step stool to get the caulk removed and the area cleared before we replaced the A/C with the gasket in place.

Then I cranked her up (again) to check and we did some wiggling to get the bolt holes lined up right. I was on the last screw when I realized I forgot to plug the wires back in, so I undid everything, plugged it in and redid all of the screws.

Finally, I threw some water at it, it didn't leak and I was out of time.

I put the cover back on, pushed her back in the garage, and cleaned up the mess (mostly bits of scraped caulking.) I didn't have a chance to fully test her in rain or with a hose, but I figure the worst case scenario is that she leaks.

All told, I spent the majority of Sunday working on that A/C and it was enormously satisfying. Bring on spring break!

 

I would hope so! That caulk was a beast! Of course, the pup is a 2003, so if the gasket lasts another 5-10 years, it might be time to replace the whole camper, not just the gasket!