74 Dart Sport Heat / AC Dilemma

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chgr1

74 Dart Sport
Joined
Feb 5, 2013
Messages
87
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Location
Near Austin Texas
Well my Dart has waited long enough, finally got her back out of storage and finishing it up. Now got to get off the dime and do something about getting heat/AC into the Dart.

My Dart was originally heat only. A long time ago a guy was getting rid of a 72 Duster heat/AC underdash box, evap, original under dash vent and other good stuff. Even if I didn't use it. Yeah I know the fan holes firewall are different between AC and NonAC. up to 72 and 73 and later. I really don't want to go to factory with all the vacuum hoses even if I found a 73 up AC donor car to get all the stuff and make the modifications if i couldn't make the 72 stuff fit.

Then was looking at Classic Air but originally they only fit up to 72 A bodies. Now on their web site they say they have a complete kit for non AC 73-74 Dusters and Dart Sports. Even though it does away with the fresh air intakes and the fan motor inside the car can be a little noisy, but its a clean installation. Called them saturday to order but they say its a mistake, it wont fit and they have to remove that information from their web site. Well heck! Isn't really the only difference in the non AC dash controls where the fan switch was vertical in 73 up verses horizontal? The fan motor holes shouldn't be a problem since I have a non AC car and the kit is for a Non AC car.

I really don't like the big old fashion underdash 4 holer vent evap assy or the hot rod universal type AC units. I read a lot of everyone's AC threads, just can make up my mind which way to go.

Gotta make a decision and do something for the Dart, this Texas heat requires AC.
 
I am just about finished installing a classic auto air kit into a 73. No it does not fit out of the box but its not hard to make it fit.
The controls are pretty simple. I used an AC panel and removed the vacuum switches. Then I took a lever from a heat only panel and installed it on the AC panel. Thats it, hook the cables up and go. The plastic body is the same for heat panel and ac panel so everything swaps from one to another. Sure you could just use a standard heat only panel and it would work. I actually managed to get two out of three modes lined up to what the panel says. Even the classic kit installing in a 71 down car does not do this.
The next hurdle is mounting the box on the firewall. I made up a plate to do this and it worked pretty good. I still have to make some block off plates for the holes that the old lines went through. had I known I was going to AC this before I painted I would have welded them flush.
So the only difference your going to run into installing this into a 73+ car is the heater box mounting and the control panel. The procedure is all the same for the rest of it.

20190714_171655.jpg
 
BTW, I was the one who pointed out they had the application listed wrong on their website. You would think they would have corrected that right away. I think they say it will fit up through 72 but the control panel changed in 72.

I will also point out a couple issues I had with the kit. It was blowing a fuse so I looked at the wiring. Since they only give a wiring diagram with pictures it was impossible to verify my wiring was wrong to one of the switches but it was according to the picture. After three emails they finally agreed with me that the switch was pinned wrong. I swapped the two wires and all was good.
So they have the harness pre-made from an outside vendor (most likely china). Save yourself some headache and verify all the wiring before installation. Yeah it should be good since it was pre-wired from the factory but mine was not.
Second issue I had was my water control valve was labeled backwards. The picture in the instructions showed the correct way and mine was labeled backwards from that.
 
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I swapped a factory air from a 71 dart in my 69 cuda. It was a lot of work but turned out really nice. I can tell you what I had to do if you are interested in pursuing that option.
 
Thanks Mike, yeah they still haven't changed their web site. when I was talking to the CAA guy he kept getting side tracked complaining that owners were modifying their designs to make them fit 73 up non AC cars.
They probably don't want to fool with the 73 up because the control assy is plastic and could break easy if someone was rough with it. Still the control / fan switch would have to be reoriented to the vertical and secured, coming up with a bracket to mount the switch shouldn't be that hard, might even be able to mod their switch bracket to fit the plastic assy.

The cable attachments to the control slider levers looks like it would work. I don't get the little plate they pop rivet onto the 72 down metal assy.
I've installed their units in other make models and found their instructions to be lacking. Still might pull the trigger and pony up $1500 then make it work. Gotta do something, got a big motor hole in the firewall now. And for the original heater core tube holes a small fabricated plate with fabbed foam or rubber seal, painted to match and secured with SS screws will fix that.

Heater Only Control.JPG


heat only 1.JPG


heat only.JPG
 
I probably had about $600 total in mine by the time I was done. Replaced the condenser, drier & expansion valve. Paid $250 for all the OEM stuff. Cost more than I thought, but still was a lot cheaper. Except for my time. Went way in the hole on that, like normal....
 
For the fan switch, a little trimming with a dremel and the switch fit up inside there snug. I then used hot glue all around it to secure it. Its not going anywhere and sits just right. The switch lever sits out slightly farther than the original but not enough to really notice.
Another issue with their kit is they assume all these cars had 22" radiator opening. I changed mine to 26" so I had to fab up some new brackets to mount the condenser.
Yeah most heat only cars had 22" but my 73 dart sport came with 26" with the max cool package. Just something else to keep in mind if you dont have 22" radiator opening.
 
Gotta do something, got a big motor hole in the firewall now. And for the original heater core tube holes a small fabricated plate with fabbed foam or rubber seal, painted to match and secured with SS screws will fix that.

You did see the picture I posted for the heater motor plate? I used butyl tape to seal it to the firewall.

Condensate drain was run below the heater box out one of the body plugs so I didnt have to drill a hole. I went to lowes and bought some clear tubing and some plastic 90° fittings to make the transition smooth. Extended the drain down past the frame rail so it didnt drip on top of the frame.
 
I swapped a factory air from a 71 dart in my 69 cuda. It was a lot of work but turned out really nice. I can tell you what I had to do if you are interested in pursuing that option.

Not sure i want to go that route yet, got to visit a guy just down the road from me parting out a bunch of 73 up Darts and Dusters just to see if one of them might be an AC car.

In the mean time I have to finish up working on a friends original 20K mile 72 Duster /6. Man this thing is a time capsule. Original plugs, cup seal orings, wires, cap, rotor, points, hoses, belt everything. Pentastar and part numbers still visible on most of the components that had them. Original interior beautiful and not all cracked, superb inside trunk and a tire jack that looks like it was never used. Western Auto Polyester tires D78-14s still holding air. Unfortunately it sat too long, changed the shocks, fuel tank and sending unit fuel hoses, the master cylinder and all the wheel cylinders. The /6 after carb rebuild and tune up and water pump runs like an old singer sewing machine. You just gotta smile every time you look at it and its simplicity.
 
Not sure i want to go that route yet, got to visit a guy just down the road from me parting out a bunch of 73 up Darts and Dusters just to see if one of them might be an AC car.

In the mean time I have to finish up working on a friends original 20K mile 72 Duster /6. Man this thing is a time capsule. Original plugs, cup seal orings, wires, cap, rotor, points, hoses, belt everything. Pentastar and part numbers still visible on most of the components that had them. Original interior beautiful and not all cracked, superb inside trunk and a tire jack that looks like it was never used. Western Auto Polyester tires D78-14s still holding air. Unfortunately it sat too long, changed the shocks, fuel tank and sending unit fuel hoses, the master cylinder and all the wheel cylinders. The /6 after carb rebuild and tune up and water pump runs like an old singer sewing machine. You just gotta smile every time you look at it and its simplicity.

Yeah, I had a lot of time in it, but I am pretty much of a cheapskate and wanted the factory look like my 68 cuda I had in my youth that had factory ac.
 
On the 26" opening I found the supplied brackets worked on the passenger side and I made some for the driver side. Its not perfectly centered but close enough. On the plus side, they did use a decent size condenser which goes a long way in the performance of the AC.
 
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