Re: Time for AirCon

Posted by Loyd Smith On 2009/5/2 9:26:49

HH56,

When I got my car the compressor was in the trunk, frozen, and someone had used a hacksaw to cut the refrigerant lines. The original condensing unit and dryer were still mounted in front of the radiator. Additionally my heat/air distribution (evaporator) box under the dash had, sometime in the distant past, turned into a lump of fuzed cardboard and corroded metal.

I ordered, from Classic Auto Air Manufacturing Company's (Tampa, FL) catalogue, the following items:

Item #1-1014, Classic Cooler H-C w/def
Item #12-1001, Filter-Drier Male "O" Ring
Item #5-128, Sanden V 2Gr 134a Compressor
Item #7-101, Sanden Swing Plate
Item #7-182 Sanden Adaptor Kit
Item # 11-1027, Power Condenser 21K BTU

As it turned out, we did not use the swing plate nor the adaptor kit. It was imminently simpler to carefully measure dimensions of the Sanden compressor, drill extra holes in the factory compressor mounting and line up the compressor pulley with the original A/C pulley (the car came with factory air).

The drier was mounted in much the same position as the original without need to alter anything in the horse collar. The double micro coil condensing unit, with its own electric fan, was mounted in the bottom of the space between the grille by bending the mounting brackets that came with it so that they'd fit snugly around the two support rods and bolt tight, again not requiring any permanent alterations in the horsecollar area. The evaporator box mounts under the dash in the approximate same position as the original.

Control for heater/defroster is a cable which can easily be routed to operate from the original ventilation, heat and A/C control panel. The fan speed switch and the temperature control switch are however electrical and are mounted in the evaporator box itself. Venting can easily be run to original A/C outlets on top of dash and defroster vents and, as I said in my earlier post, there is one vent in the front of the evaporator box and the ability to run another air outlet wherever is desirable. I have another vent mounted to the bottom of the dash on the far passenger side of the car. Hoses for heater can be routed through the cowl easily and heater control valve can be mounted anywhere that you can get a cable to it.

The whole system is the most unobtrusive configuration that I could locate and is pretty much unnoticeable unless you crawl under the dash and look specifically for it and, even then, does not appear especially out of place. Of course you can immediately determine that the Sanden compressor is not the LeHigh when you look under the bonnet but, what can I say? It's hot in Florida and I needed air conditioning. Additionally, with the exception of the aforementioned switch (which I have addressed), it works quite well putting out more than enough volume and BTUs to heat or cool the large greenhouse area in the car.