A\C heater box vs non A\C heater box

[jfive]

hi all, sorry if this have been covered before.

i have a 70 Swinger, factory air. i recently decided to go for the American Autowire replacement wiring harness (510603), very nice harness so far, just one thing that i was not aware of until i called today and was told that the harness does NOT work with factory installed A\C, and apparently it is in the directions that it doesn't but no were on their site does it say that....Regardless i was not planning on removing all the air stuff (not sure if it is working, missing things) but i had to in order to get the firewall fuse box mounted. now for the real reason i started this...

1) is there a way to, hopefully simple enough, "change" the fan ducting to reuse the heater core part and not the "air" side that will interfere with fuse box? was thinking to reuse the vents and defrost for heat.
2) do i have to change the whole heater core and fan housing to a non-air unit?
3) or just go aftermarket for heat and a\c unit?

i see where lot of you guys are using aftermarket and seems as easy\simplest way to go, so i figured id ask


thanks ALL

 

[Oldmanmopar]

If your car has factory AC under the dash I would try and leave that there and upgrade under the hood to a newer pump. The harness for AC is and add on to a non AC harness. There is a spot in the fuse box for it. All the controls in the car are vacuum. except for the fan and the pump.

 

[jfive]

If your car has factory AC under the dash I would try and leave that there and upgrade under the hood to a newer pump. The harness for AC is and add on to a non AC harness. There is a spot in the fuse box for it. All the controls in the car are vacuum. except for the fan and the pump.

i will get a few pictures today, the AAW harness goes into the firewall but will not allow the air box on inside of the car to sit against the firewall. so if i wanted to "modify" the air con side of the unit s that possible?

 

[Professor Fate]

i will get a few pictures today, the AAW harness goes into the firewall but will not allow the air box on inside of the car to sit against the firewall. so if i wanted to "modify" the air con side of the unit s that possible?

I'm having a hard time picturing this... the heater/AC box is on the complete opposite side of the car (passenger side) from where the wiring bulkhead connector is (driver's side). I have never had or seen any kind of interference between the two, or even close. Care to elaborate a bit?

 

[jfive]

I'm having a hard time picturing this... the heater/AC box is on the complete opposite side of the car (passenger side) from where the wiring bulkhead connector is (driver's side). I have never had or seen any kind of interference between the two, or even close. Care to elaborate a bit?

I will get picture and post.

 

[jfive]

I will get picture and post.

I'm having a hard time picturing this... the heater/AC box is on the complete opposite side of the car (passenger side) from where the wiring bulkhead connector is (driver's side). I have never had or seen any kind of interference between the two, or even close. Care to elaborate a bit?

It isn’t the heater box. It is the air con that sits behind the vents that mount under dash.

 

[Mike69cuda]

The ac box in that year range shadows the bulkhead connector. You will probably need to modify the air box some, or go with the OEM harness. You are kind of in uncharted territory I would guess.

This is why I went with the replacement OEM M&H harnesses when I did mine. There are a lot of folks who use aftermarket harnesses with good success. However, most are “universal” in some ways. It often takes a higher skill level and a lot more work than just replacing a harness with one that looks just like it. You can, however save some money.

As already mentioned above, mopar in those years had a separate harness for just about everything:
A/C
Wipers
Backup light / Neutral start
Console
Dome light
Accessory light group

These are in addition to the under hood and tail light harnesses.

I don’t know which of those all are included in your new harness. So you will likely need to do a lot of electrical work.

Switching an AC box for a non ac box will snowball on you quickly. There is a lot involved, and you will quickly regret it. The box you have in there, as mentioned above will work if you just get power & vacuum to it.

After market heat and air will set you back about $2k by the time all the crying is done. If this is what you want, there are lots of threads about it on here.

If you are a fair electrical guy, I would say go for it with what you have. it will take some time & figuring, but it is not that hard.

If you aren’t an electrical guy, go buy the M&H harnesses and save yourself a lot of swear words & liquor.

 

[jfive]

ok so i have a few pictures, sorry i had already remove the heat and air boxes from under dash. the problem is the evaporator is to long and sticks past the firewall opening just ever so slightly and therefor covers the new fuse panel. but as you can see the pin holes for lining up the air con evaporator on the insulation is really close, and the metal housing stick past the insulation, i was thinking i might have enough room to move the bulkhead connector over to the driver side as far as i could and maybe make some room for the unit to go back in. i am not sure if this unit works, leaks, clogged or anything about it. i assume it wasn't working for some reason and that's why there are several pieces of the air con side missing


that all being said i am just going to try to get a after market heat/ac system, it might clean up underneath the dash a little

thanks all for the help.

 

[Mike69cuda]

Don’t toss that ac box if you replace it, parts are hard to find.

 

[CRUZE 418]

As post #7 says, these reach around do it yourself harnesses, are not for everyone, and regretfully, you just found out why. Reach around meaning avoiding buying an orginal replacement. M&H orginal replacement harnesses in all 3 of my cars. One is an A/C car , just like yours. The fuse box is supposed to be somewhere else, not at the bulkhead connector. Sorry that this isn't what you want to hear, especially after spending good money on your reach around.
Yes, you can buy an aftermarket A/C heat system, but, they are for a car w/o A/C. Your firewall is different, but it can be done. No free lunch. Your old system can be rebuilt, but hard telling what you have and don't have. Kind of a can of worms your in.

 

[jfive]

Don’t toss that ac box if you replace it, parts are hard to find.

not planning on that, lol
i will probably be cleaning it up a bit and posting on here for sale.

 

[jfive]

As post #7 says, these reach around do it yourself harnesses, are not for everyone, and regretfully, you just found out why. Reach around meaning avoiding buying an orginal replacement. M&H orginal replacement harnesses in all 3 of my cars. One is an A/C car , just like yours. The fuse box is supposed to be somewhere else, not at the bulkhead connector. Sorry that this isn't what you want to hear, especially after spending good money on your reach around.
Yes, you can buy an aftermarket A/C heat system, but, they are for a car w/o A/C. Your firewall is different, but it can be done. No free lunch. Your old system can be rebuilt, but hard telling what you have and don't have. Kind of a can of worms your in.

yea that have been my whole process with this car,

but i know it is worth it in the end as i wouldn't trade or part with it now that i have one again, and actually makes me want another.