Good morning all -

I did not pull the airbag or steering wheel when removing the dash. All the U.S. cars have the telescoping steering wheel; I just ran it all the way out. This makes sufficient room to pull the instrument cluster and remove the dash.

I think it took about three hours to pull the dash and center console. I don't think Larry is looking at more than 5-6 hours total work here. It's much simpler to replace the vacuum elements only as opposed to the evaporator. Dave (gsxr) should be able to give a good estimate of the work time, I know he's performed several pod-ectomies on 124 cars.

I don't know for certain on the 124 cars, but on other chassis the internals/mechanicals of the hvac system were identical worldwide; only the "front end" controls differed between the automated U.S. and manual systems used elsewhere. They all used the same vacuum elements, it was just a matter whether those elements were controlled by an automatic brain box or directly by manual switches.

- JimY