On replacing an Aqua-Hot Control Box in a 2000 LXI

[luckyron1]

Ordered the part from Roger Berke, got it in 3 days, installed it yesterday and
am back to normal again. But, as we BB owner's have learned to expect, hardly
anything is plug and play in a Bluebird. In order to get at the Aqua-Hot
components you first have to remove the hose from the overflow tank that is
mounted on the cover of the Aqua-Hot unit. Then you take out the 3 screws
retaining the cover on the left side of the Aqua-Hot. Easy, but then you
discover that in order to get the cover out of there and get access to the guts
of the Aqua-Hot itself you have to remove the gas strut & bracket from the
compartment door. Whoops, can't forget that you also have to remove the
compartment door clip from the door jamb and the piece of carpeted metal
shielding some piping on the low/front side of the compartment. Of course you
then clean it up and set it aside and then get on with the control box
replacement. That actually was a snap. After checking the fuses for continuity
and for DC power with the meter, you simply unhook the two plugs from the bottom
of the faulty control unit, then gently slide the unit (in it's clip) to the
left and it comes off of the cylindrical something that it's attached to. Then
you disengage the faulty unit from it's snap spring steel type clip, and note
that this will take some strength and deliberation but the clip didn't break or
bend, (and don't try to slide it out up or down because it won't come out
easily) insert the new one in the reverse, and turn it back on. It works again
but now I have to get something to compress that gas strut so that I can
reattach it to the door post. Someone had suggested one of those ratchet straps
from Lowe's or Home Depot, we'll see.

Now I can get back to the Inverter/Charger project.

2000 LXI in (finally) sunny MN