No air conditioning, muffler, rear bumper. Questions for everyone.

[Teddie]

1995 Plymouth Voyager 3 Litre V6.

The Haynes manual for the 1984-1995 Chrysler minivans covers the 1st generation fairly well, but is lacking on the 2nd generation.

POR-15 works great, but you have to remember it is UV sensitive so you have to make sure you cover it up. The POR-15 and Marine Cleaner will dry out and foul up your hands so gloves are advised.

The van has gone through 4-5 air conditioning compressors over its lifetime and I have been told this is normal. They begin to leak and squeal then self destruct. Are these vans known for going through air conditioning compressors?


The reverse lights only work intermittently and I am not sure where to start chasing problems. Anyone else encounter this?

The Catalytic Converter and Muffler are going which gives the van a sweet exhaust note, but I should fix them.
Looks like the Catalytic Converter cannot be removed with WD40 and elbow grease, but is this true? After the vehicle has cooled down how exactly does one go about changing the muffler? Is buying junkyard muffler a good idea?

How does one go about removing the rear bumper? I cannot see any pressurized cylinders or attachment points, but are they hidden?

I would like to mount 2 off-road lights on the front bumper and I have seen other vans do this. The off-road lights on those vans are in front of the grill cover by the way. I know there are ways to de-yellow the plastic, but as you all probably know these headlights were subpar from the factory and I am already running greater than 55 Watt bulbs. The battery must be disconnected before anything should be done, but beyond that I am not sure how to go about this.

Is the roof rack on these vans glued on and bolted on or are there just bolts?

Should I just rough up the roof paint and touch up where the clear coat is missing or should I apply a clear coat myself and then put a layer of paint over the new clear coat?

[RIP]

Compressors? No not known for eating them. I'm not a mechanic but of the half dozen or so Chrysler minivans I've dealt with over the years only one compressor went bad. My 96 still has it's original and living in a desert it gets used a lot. Many times compressors will shread small metal particles as they fail. These particles travel all over the system. Installing a new compressor without flushing the system and changing the drier invites another failure. If you haven't been doing this I'd recommend it.

Good chance the intermittent reverse lights are caused by a bad neutral safety/backup lights switch. It's on the front of a 4 speed transmission at lower right. I remember it sitting on a diagonal to the rest of the connections. On the 3 speed it's in the same area but doesn't sit diagonal.