AC guinea pig...

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I'm pulling one of those thin plates out of the front which should move it back just that less than a quarter of an inch I need to get the pulleys to line up. I want to line it up with the inside pulley of the pump to give less side force and stress.set back bracket which is a generic bracket of some sort from all this Mopar stuff I had to flatten out just a little bit and not contour in as much. You can see the picture where it's a little off but once I take that front bracket out it should be just about right..

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About 3 in from inside to outside of the bracket when the brackets are mounted to the inside of the compressor. About 3 in from inside to outside of my brackets..
 
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Okay it looks like I got it lined up almost perfect if not absolutely perfect. When I started I had the compressor and it's in word most position on the brackets to set it so the back of it has room not to hit the motor and I swing it all the way out to make sure it doesn't hit the frame. And all looks like I have a clearance everywhere. I'm getting about an inch and 1/8 of travel for stretching on the belt..
 
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I have a hole in each bracket but no room to get a pen in there or anything to mark. I just bent the end of a q-tip and put a little spray paint on it... I'm going to actually try to bolt it together to begin with but I will try an outline how it fits on there now so everything just kind of lines back up and then I'll get my welding bench out...
 
Well I'm back from the hobbyist motherland... Harbor Freight.. lol...
I'll take a couple pictures of where I'm at and where I want to go here in just a few minutes..
My only problem with HF is I will no longer support China if I have ANY other option.....
That said, you do kick *** work!!!

Jeff
 
Okay one thing I notice first of all if I go ahead and weld these brackets all together I will definitely have to unbolt the brackets from the motor and water pump to get the compressor out. It's a little too tight to the frame. with that said all I needed to do is drill a hole for the rear bracket which had a nut ready to collect the bolt. on the front bracket I went ahead and drilled yet another hole to have a 2-point holding part to keep the compressor and a good line. I also welded the nuts to the back side. Of course the wire feed welder leaves a lot of splatter but this wall clean up nicely with a flap wheel..
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Bazinga!...
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Now I can tighten the bolts is tight as I can get them and then loosen the bolts coming off the engine and weld it all up and then trim all the ends and make them into nice one off brackets...
 
have you thought about having enough room to attach the line ends to the A/C compressor as you have it configured?
 
have you thought about having enough room to attach the line ends to the A/C compressor as you have it configured?
Yes. I feel I'm going to have plenty of room. I'm definitely taking that stupid line lock solenoid out of there. also when the belt is stretched it will be turned up and facing up a little bit more...
 
I ran out of welding wire and had to go back at the Harbor Freight dammit...
and of course instead of like this morning when I got there right when they open it was a crowded mess...
 
Nice! How about a pic from the top of them?
They're pretty much like the last picture in post 133. Just welded together and then the excess fat trimmed off and grinded smoothed and painted....
Since I was only able to make one small attachment on the back side bracket from the two lower timing chain cover attachments I used gussets..
 
So I called coldmaster this morning and the first two attempts were just to the recording and the third one I got a lady that was definitely Hispanic and just a bit hard to understand but not too bad and was very nice I can say that. She took down my phone number and said that I would get a call within 5 or 10 minutes. It took 20 but no big deal, it was Omar as always and very friendly and helpful with all of my questions...
Since I never had a system like this I wasn't aware of that the condenser and evaporator were under pressure when sent out. So I listened one of the plastic fittings and air started leaking out and I stopped and tightened it back down. Come to find out this is normal and to me it makes sense that if it's holding air that it's a good unit..
They give you a couple choices for clamps. 1 is normal hose clamps with a little tine that space is it correctly. And also they give you the sleeves but you need a crimp tool for that.. I'll see if I can rent or possibly take the hoses down and have them credit as I think that would give her much nicer appearance...
I think I am convinced now that I would like to mount this under the dash instead of my original plan to mount it in the back. I may have cost myself a little extra hose but no big deal. Going along with that hindsight I should have probably got prevented one with the controls on the face but again I'll be happy to have cold air blowing through there and it's all black and doesn't really stick out that much. I think in the future I'll just put four little round caps with the little vents on there and be fine with it...
 
Definitely normal to hear that pressure equalize on the evaporator when you take the cover off the tubes. Good sign of no leaks. Don't forget to draw a vacuum on the whole system (through the low side) once it's all installed. The cheap 2.5cfm vacuum pumps from HF work fine for this job. Suck it down to about 29inches for about 30min and then close it off, it should hold that vacuum for at least 15min. Now you are ready to charge it. There are lots of videos on you tube of this process.
 
Definitely normal to hear that pressure equalize on the evaporator when you take the cover off the tubes. Good sign of no leaks. Don't forget to draw a vacuum on the whole system (through the low side) once it's all installed. The cheap 2.5cfm vacuum pumps from HF work fine for this job. Suck it down to about 29inches for about 30min and then close it off, it should hold that vacuum for at least 15min. Now you are ready to charge it. There are lots of videos on you tube of this process.
The instructions say they want you to vacuum it for 60 minutes LOL..
A high school buddy of mine is a mechanic at the local cab company and has been there for 30 years and told me to bring the car down when it's time so he can charge it for me.. he said a buddy buddy deal on a Saturday and I'll just have to pay for Freon and oil which I believe the compressor is full of oil...
 
Compressor basically installed. of course I have to do the bolts with a little RTV Andre put them in but I'm content that I have it correct and lined up nicely. With plenty of room for the charging apparatus...
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Just had a few hours to get some more done yesterday.. couple trips to the hardware store and a couple to the parts store.. some drilling and head scratchin...
Worked out a plan to attach the condenser to the radiator.. and the fan to the condenser.. On my set-up not enough room to get all in at once.. Must set in condenser fan and attached once the condenser & radiator and radiator fan are in... also going to work on the hood latch support and move it outweighs just a little bit for some clearance.. also had two notch the core support where are the condenser connections come out. Not that they're touching but I wouldn't have enough room to screw on the elbows to run the lines..
 
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