As I was charging my customer's A/C system today I noticed what looked like
whisps of smoke coming from the metal fuse under that plastic cover on the
driver's side in the rear of all '87 or newer Vanagons with A/C and inside
the rear cabinet on Westies.
Well it was smoke.  I shut the system down and noticed that the two philips
head screws on each end of the fuse were loose and had corrosion under them.
I carefully unhooked them (they are always live) and cleaned up the
connections with scotch brite.  Then tightened everything back up.  The
screws still got hot to the touch but no smoke.  Good thing I was charging
the system with a gauge set and had to remove that cover or I might not have
known about the problem before it was to late.
If you have a later model Vanagon and you are running your A/C this summer,
check this out.  My Carat system is the same and it gets really hot too (even
after I cleaned it up as well.
Ken Wilford
Van-Again
John 3:16