Re: Time for AirCon

Posted by Loyd Smith On 2009/4/29 15:11:19

Bernardi,

The heat exchange unit is under the dash mounted in approximately the same position as the stock box was. It is a little longer but not quite as wide. Contains both heat and A/C exchanger and eliminates the box on the engine side of the cowl on the passenger side. I have it vented both to the original A/C vents in the dash and to the original defroster outlets. There is one air outlet on the box, itself, just a little toward the driver's side of the car and I have another outlet mounted to the bottom of the dash on the passenger side. The only two drawbacks that I've found with the system are that, although you can hook the heat/cold air cable to one of the levers on the original vent/heat/AC controls, the fan/AC switches are mounted on the interior exchanger box itself and I've not yet figured out how to make them work from the original controls. Too, the three speed blower fan switch that came installed in the unit was kind of cheap and the wiring connectors melted under the amperage of running the fan at high speed (twice). It did not over-amp enough to blow the built in fuzing that is designed into the system or the extra ones that I installed. The switch that comes with the unit just isn't up to its task. I finally replaced it with another that I found (I think) at radio shack that had adequate wire connexions. Yes, you can open and close the glove box without interference but you will find the installation of the exchanger unit is much easier if you remove the glove box and then re-install it after the unit is in place.

Nothing of course is perfect but I am well pleased with the system after replacing the shoddy blower fan switch. It has, as I said in my other post, been operating now for almost three years without problems and under (in Florida) almost constant usage.