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Thx Pat...

Yup plastic. Others have mounted a metal aftermarket one, but if you are as lucky as I was you can find one from a Hudson that had a Packard supplied v8. They were solid metal and made in the same shape as the plastic ones to fit perfectly with the housing on the motor. The fan hub on the Hudson will be different and you will need to disassemble.

I believe on some page in my billion page blog I show the rebuild with the metal blade. Can't remember what page.

Hank

Teardown starts tomorrow. If it isn't the radiator, the water pump or the thermostat, I will not know what to do.

What is your guess?

hank,

plastic?.

All the ones I have are metal...never seen a plastic 56 water pump blade.

pat,,

you might want to look at that waterless anti freeze,, check out jay lenos garage, jay uses it. not cheap,,

if you go water base,, look up RMI 25, its great stuff..

I have add-on A/C on my 1954 Cavalier.

Add-on A/C was on the car when I bought it.

My car has a 12 volt system for the A/C which is working fine, the car runs on the original 6 volt system which turns on the 12 volt system via a relay.

I have a single fan belt running everything and I have a BX type belt (with teeth) which I have gone through several. My belt has to make a slight backward bend due to an idler that gives more contact to the fan / pump pulley. The BX belts break at the teeth. I am going to obtain a non-BX belt and see if I can get more life.

My car has a pressure cap on the radiator with a recovery tank hidden under the left front fender. I don't see any loss of coolant. The temp gauge sits at what I believe is about 170.

I will put an optical pyrometer to it one day and see, (always point at something black to get an accurate reading).

I am driving in downtown traffic in Phoenix AZ and we are in the low 100's when I drive the Packard home from work with the A/C on.

The fan in the cabin is not controlled by temperature, only the compressor. With a dark blue top the A/C is barely keeping up once you are driving stop and go in the mid-day Phoenix sun. Ultramatic transmission.

I am low on refrigerant and I don't have access to a test device to tell me what is in the system (they actually make such a device but it is expensive). I have access to some real 12 and I am going to try adding some and see if the A/C still works, or if I actually have 134 in a 12 system. I don't see any markings on the expansion valve but the compressor says R-12.

Jim

Could be an airflow issue with the A/V condenser on the front of the radiator getting getting warm/hot during use and the extra load on the motor.

If your radiator flow is marginal, this would for sure make that known pretty quickly.

yes, plastic. black plastic.

some did have metal, including the Packard supplied motors to Hudson for the hornets, which is where i got my metal one to replace the crappy plastic one.

metal one that i got from a hudson pump. top pic

black plastic as in this NOS one, bottom pic, i broke the plastic one trying to take apart the pump. then i put this NOS one on....and broke the housing, so i had to take it back apart and it broke again with barely any pressure on it.

i said forget that and got a metal one, just so happens hudson ones had metal and i found one on ebay...so i caniblized it and used the blade only.

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Technically R12 and R134 are not miscible. In the REAL WORLD they are. So if it already has R12 in it and assuming SOME R12 remains then just top it off with R134. If it is already R134 then no issue exists. Top it off with R134. Bottom line, just top it off with R134.

Since your post above indicates that it currently "just barely keeps up" indicates SOME cooling effect. Which means SOME refrigerant is still in it. Therefore topping off with the 134 should get u out of the heat.

However, i would put put a pressure test gauges on it just for a test.

If u have to open up the system then be sure to install a SIGHT GLASS!!!! They are CHEAP!!!! The so-called "professionals" will try to talk u out of it EVERYTIME. But with a sight glass u will be able to monitor the refrigerant level by using two eyes in ones head. Something the so-called "professionals" don't want anyone to do.

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack this thread with my problems but eventually we all share the same problems it seems.

My system has a sight glass and when the A/C is running there is a foamy appearance indicating to me low refrigerant. This system was installed either the late 90's or early 2000's so it hasn't leaked much over that time. The guy that installed it is quite old like I am getting and couldn't remember the R type.

I have a gauge set but I hate to part with any 12 these days.

The Sanden compressor says R-12 and has R-12 fittings but who knows what is actually in it, adaptors are radially available.

When the car is parked for the day in the company parking garage it is nice and cool during the drive home in the 100 degree + Phoenix sun. If I take it to the grocery store and park in the noon sun it takes a long ride to feel the effects.

I have a friend with a small stash of R-12 in the little cans so I thought I would strike a deal and top off with 12 and see if that works better. I don't know the capacity of this A/C system.

During the winter I ran with a standard belt and bypassed the entire lash up.

Jim