OT: passat expansion valve

[amalventano at sc.rr.com (Allyn)]

    ok, so i got parts on the way to fix the wifes daily. need to get the 
a/c working before the little ones melt away in the back seat. i got a 
pretty incredible deal from europeanautomotive.com on a condenser, receiver, 
and expansion valve (all for like $250) - (thanks to wagner for sending me 
their way). if you ever do an order with them, call them, dont use the web 
site, there are a bunch of errors with their listings that they are trying 
to bang out at the moment.
    anyhow, the expansion valve arrived today, which prompted me to look up 
where the heck it goes. the bentley shows me some pics, but doesnt give an 
actual procedure for replacement of the expansion valve. it looks like its 
either on the engine side of the firewall, or its on the other side, hiding 
somewhere inside the dash / air handler. so whats the deal here? is it going 
to take an act of god to replace this thing or what?
thx in advance for help
Al

Allyn Malventano, ETC(SS), USN
87 Rieger Scirocco GTO 2.0 16v (daily driver, 200k, rocco #6)
86 Kamei Twin 16V Turbo Scirocco GTX (30% complete, rocco #7)
86.5 Occo 16v Trailer (rocco #8)
90 Passat GL 16V (the wifes new daily, 200k)