The evaporator on my 97 R with only 50K miles has given up. Thank you, Volvo reliability.. Stopped by NAPA today and asked about the plastic spring lock tool that you have to use to get at the evaporator. Since I haven't torn into the dash yet, I have no idea what this plastic or steel spring lock tool looks like. Can someone tell me what to ask for at the desk the next time I go back? Dick

The plastic tools described in the other post worked for me. You need 1/2 and 5/8 inch sizes. It required in my case quite a bit of force to get the tool under the spring to expand it. Some rust penetrant helped (you will clean everything up thoroughly afterward, anyway). There is a little lip on the inner radius of the tool that slips under the spring when you have the tool on in the right direction. Once the tool was on the spring, a sustained steady pull was able to free both the evaporator lines. There is just enough freedom of movement in the steel lines in the car to allow this. At least on the 95-850 there is a clamp you need to free to allow movement of the lines (bolt has a 6 mm hex socket drive, not a Torx). The same story with the accumulator spring-lock. You can get some twist and pull on the accumulator by freeing it from its mounting while leaving the steel lines clamped in place. After the springlock line is freed you will be able to access and undo the line to the compressor from the accumulator by letting the accum. hang below the car. Otherwise you'd have to remove nearby parts, like the radiator.

For the new evap and accum to fit on the lines in the car the inlet/outlet tubes have to be bent to angles closely matching the originals. There was a recent very helpful post on this. Even with the tubes colinear it also took some steady force to get the springlocks to reseat. I used an inspection mirror to verify that the springs had jumped over the flared ends of the tubes all around their circumference and would not pull apart.

Most kits are a series of different sized plastic sleeves about an inch long to fit various sizes of tubes. They're split so you can get them around the tube. Once around the tube you push them into the fitting to expand a circular coiled spring. They're sort of tricky to use because you have to both push in on the sleeve and pull the two tubing sections apart. There are also "all in one" types of tools but they're even harder to use especially if you don't have alot of room. The sleeve type should be $20-30. The tool is not needed to reconnect the tube sections. Just replace the two o-rings and push them together. There should be a little snap as the spring goes over the tubing flange.