Here is the metal bracket on the left side that you need to cut into to make room for the temp control cable when you put the HVAC unit in the lower cubby.

There are two 10mm bolts and two philips screws you need to remove to get it off. Shown to the right are the tools I used to remove those bolts/screws. The bolts aren't too bad with a ratcheting wrench, but the screws are fairly difficult to remove, especially the top one.

Screws shown at top and bottom of bracket. I basically had to use the stubby screwdriver for the top one and turn it with three different fingers on two hands and could barely get it off. Don't strip it!

 

Circled in red are the razor-sharp "spikes of death". So Mitsubishi went cheap and instead of having nice threaded holes for the head unit/lower cubby mounts, they just pressed them in. Which makes for these really sharp jagged points that will cut your hand.



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I'd recommend covering them with a squashed up paper napkin or something, or else your hands will probably end up like mine.

 

More to come when I get a chance to work on the car some more. Anyone know how much you're suppose to cut off the metal bracket? Something like this? What did you guys use to cut it, a dremel with a cutting wheel? Hacksaw?

 

instead pf cuttin it u can bend the bracket outward to make room for the conrtols to turn..

 

Good tip awd_Boost. I ended up making two cuts to make a "flap" and then pulled the flap back to make room for the temp control cable. I'll post more pics later.

 

hey tsair thanks for providing the image of that metal part i never had a chance to open up my hvac again to take a picture at lease now the rest of the evo members wont have a probem about the missing image on my post. do you mind if i upload your image to my original instruction?

 

no prob, i'd be happy if you did. i'll post the cut/bend i had to make to the part. just curious, what length bolts and spacers did you use for the hvac mount?

1" spacer with a couple of small washers seems perfect for the bottom two holes, but for the top two it looks like i need at least a 3" bolt and about 1.25" spacer + a couple of washers. My 2" bolt and 1" space is way too short.

 

actually you don't have to mount the hvac. you can just sandwich the Lower bezel between the hvac control and the face with the screw . i did mount mine just for easy removal of the face and lower bezel and for less rattle. Yes is a 3' spacer and a 4' bult that i have laying around my junk box you can get one in homedepot. also you can just put two on top just to secure it then screw the face to the bezel. im going to put your pic in the instruction right after you post the rest. thanks again.

 

OK, so once you got the HVAC unit out, cut off the tabs on each upper corner. I used a hacksaw and then filed down the remainder.

 

Then you need to drill a hole in each upper mount so that you can put a bolt through it. I started with a small pilot hole and then worked my way up to larger and larger drill bits until the final product here. I also wrapped the unit in Saran wrap to prevent bits of plastic getting all over the place. You don't want to get crap in the gears!

The hole should be located towards the bottom & outside of the mount because it will line up better in the cubby that way.

 

Then you need to cut out part of the metal bracket to make room for the temp control cable. You don't have to completely cut out the metal part -- I made two cuts (using a dremel) and then bent the flap back for clearance.

Make your lower cut about 1/4" lower than I did here -- my HVAC unit barely clears the lower part of the flap.



On the right is pictured what I use for the lower mount spacers. They don't actually bolt to the HVAC unit, they space it out. The screw is the stock IX MR screw for the gauges. A 1" plastic spacer and about 3 washers is perfect.

 

A pic of the HVAC unit mounted in. It took some trial and error to get the right amount of spacers. Realize that if you put longer spacers on top, it will tilt the unit down, and shorter spacers will tilt up. Similarly with the bottom spacers. The top is bolted using a 1" plastic spacer + a 1/4" plastic spacer and a 6/32" x 3" bolt and nut. Spacers from OSH, bolts/nuts from Lowe's.

This pic also shows how I routed the cables. Electrical cables rerouted behind the right bracket.

 

This pic shows how I routed the mechanical cables. The upper one goes between the brackets -- I bent the bracket slightly to reduce the sharp edges and also wrapped the cable with a little duct tape to protect it some. Those metal edges are sharp!

The lower black cable barely reaches, but seems OK.

 

OK, that's it for now. Time for a break!

 

I think that's pretty much all the pics I'll take. Hope it fills in some of the gaps in kinglasserres' instructions. Thanks to him for the original idea, I felt I could help out by taking extra pictures that he missed.