Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Old Air has the same items--but a bit more cost up front. Old Air bracket Maybe their freight is less.

No idea on shipping charges or what it costs to Australia. I had a small box from Canada cost $19.00 and that's not nearly as far as yours.

I had a walk through today with the mechanic and we are all set to go, adding air and an alternator in one mighty draining of my checking account At this moment, all is happy although grim reality may intervene down the road.

I got my a/c bracket and my alternator bracket from Mike Dulinski, who is on our list on this site. Both products are made specifically for Packard V-8s. I don't know what his exact price will be for these since mine were prototypes. Suggest you call him, not e-mail him. He is more than fair, and very helpful before and after the purchase.

Hopefully either u or Mike will post pics of the finished brackets BEFORE and AFTER installation.

The mechanic has the parts but I am not scheduled yet as the car goes into storage for the winter in a week.

Happy to post what I can whe the work is done, but if you want to get set up for a/c you may want to call Mike before that point......

G'day Guys, I've been doing more homework on converting my system over from York to Sanden. I've bought the mounting bracket from an Ebay seller called "Mr Fomoco Motorcraft" in Texas. It is the ram horns type I previously posted a photo of and cost $49.95, plus $49.60 shipping, which is the best I could come up with. Regarding the compressor, I decided ask a few questions and found out that at around 60 kph (35 mph), the Sanden should be spinning above 2,000 rev's. So, using my trusty mathematics I calculated that my engine rpm at that speed is around 1,600 (tyres 235 x 75 x 15 Dayton radials, diff ratio 3.54), which means the compressor pulley should be around 5" (either 125mm or 132mm) and that gives me approximately 2100 or 2200 compressor revs. I haven't sorted the precise Sanden model to suit yet but hope to do that shortly. Finding a receiver dryer the same size as the original may be difficult as it's located in a tight spot behind the grill adjacent to the condensor, horn, heater fan, etc. It may require some mod's to fit a universal type, but it'll be worth it in the long run with cold air for a change, especially now we're heading into summer (101 forecast for here today). Regards, John

quote:
"... which means the compressor pulley should be around 5" ..."

That begs the question:
What ARE the pulley size options available????

Edit: Or a better question yet:
What IS the MAXIMUM rpm that the compressor can sustain??

JP, Just as an option on your drier, here are a few picts of my AC installation still in progress. The drier is one supplied with the aftermarket kit and smaller than the previous. Made a bracket & mounted where the old one was originally using existing screws. Since I opted for the safety switch, also made a new harness to duplicate the factory one but with the additional needs.

The compressor is a Sanden SD7H15 but is part of their FLX7 series. That is a modular setup where I could pick and choose giving me more options in clutch and hose connection choices. This particular clutch is the single groove narrow A1 style belt which matched my factory AC pulley. Diameter is 138mm or roughly 5.4 inches and is mated to the roughly 6 3/4 diameter drive pulley. I didn't calculate out the RPMs but was a close match to the original size of the Lehigh. Must confess, was driven more by the fact I didn't want the double groove pulley which seems to come with all aftermarket setups than concern about compressor speed. I don't expect to ever come near the max RPM.

The mount is a spare Packard cast & integrated with the Lehigh type which I had laying around without any compressor to go with it. Made a flat plate to bolt onto it to utilize it's existing bolt pattern but spaced it up 3/8" to clear the PS pump, rocker cover and fan. Added the Sanden universal mount and utilized that for belt alignment. The difference to this particular setup is because of the clutch & groove arrangement, compressor is further forward & because of that, it also had to go further to side to clear the fan. It is pretty much a custom made mount & compressor is not a drop in.

Now if I could only get the carpet here, could finish up the firewall and mount the rest of system.

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G'day Men, to answer the first questions first, there are many different size pulleys for the Sanden over here. Talking in metrics, some I know of are 119mm, 125mm, 132mm, 140mm, 146mm, 153mm, and probably a lot more. 125mm is pretty close to 5" and I think I'll be going for one of those or 132mm. I tried to measure my drive pulley and came up with 6 7/8", which is pretty much the same as Howards. From what I have found, the maximum constant rev's for a Sanden SD7H15 is 6,000, although I have seen 4,000 for a sealed unit but I'm not sure what that is. By my calculations, at around 60 mph, which is faster than I normally cruise, it'll be spinning either 3500 or 3700, depending upon which model I get.

Now to Howard's interesting photo's. I say interesting because your setup is back to front to mine. My compressor is located on the passenger side (the car is LHD) over the generator and the power steering pump is located on the driver's side. The receiver drier is also mounted on the passenger side in a pretty tight spot (see pic's). You look like you've got a lot more room to move with your setup Howard, and it looks pretty clean and tidy in there as well. Very nice. I like the receiver drier setup you have and I'm thinking I'll have to do something similar. By the way, as my York has a double pulley, for that reason I have been looking at 2A pulleys. I'm not really familiar with the safety switch but presume it is some sort of cutout if pressure fluctuates too much (?). Regards, John

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John, My car had non functioning factory AC so the install duplicates the factory in dash setup as close as possible using modern components. From the 55 dealer field install book, you can see everything is on the drivers side--including the valves and hole in the firewall so makes things much easier not dealing with the heater side. 56 was the same layout but used hoses and one less metal tube so a little simpler in plumbing. A couple of aftermarket setups duplicated the factory routing but since it meant a special bracket and moving the oil filter, most did not and used the passenger side as yours does.

Your drier space is awfully tight and don't remember seeing any aftermarket units that would come close to what you have. There are places here that rebuild driers--is that an option there if it came to that or made it easier? One other relatively easy possibility is changing to a horizontal inline drier and mount it in the open space above the flat section of air plenum on Rt inner fender. Since you will probably need new hoses anyway, maybe an option.

The switch is a high-low pressure cutoff for the compressor clutch. Just a bit of perceived safety should something go amiss. Supposed to protect the compressor but I rather imagine anything that would cause it to operate would be serious enough that damage would already be done with or without it.

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The pressure cuttoff sw. mite be just fine as long as the sw. is supplied by the same mfg'er that supplies the rest of the system. In my case i ran a mixture of Toyota and Mark IV evap, condensor pump etc and the toyota cut off sw went bad (probably due to age). The replacement sw. from discount auto parts store was a different pressure rating from oem toyota sw..

Bottom line, if switch goes bad then alot of refrigeraant is lost in replacing sw. Eventually i just spliced hte two wires together and left switch in place as a 'plug' rather than to replace it.


IF the drier has a sight glass built into it then maybe having the dryer rebuilt would be a better idea than a new replacement. AFAIK there are no currently available dryers with sight glass.