My toronado has comforton, the car came with an extra dash with a manual heater/ac controller. I was wondering if would be easier to change it to manual heater/ac controls than trying to get the comfortron working again. I am mainly just concerned about getting the heat to work.

 

It's not as simple as changing out the control head. Comfortron has basically a whole different duct and control system from regular Custom A/C. Meaning you'd be in for a job.

I have admittedly passed on several otherwise nice cars because of Comfortron, but it's not as voodoo and mumbo-jumbo as everyone claims. It just has specific service procedures and parts, and Oldsmobile Comfortron parts are fairly easy to find on ebay (or were a couple years ago when I still used ebay frequently).

R, do you have a 69 shop manual? It covers Comfortron pretty well. If you don't, PM me with an address and I'll photocopy the section for you, and any Service Guild Comfortron stuff I can find. Or you can try WildAboutCars to get the Comfortron stuff.

It's telling that one of the dealer Essential Service Tools was the Comfortron Tester.

 

do you think the '71-'76 Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, & Chevrolet ATC (excluding Tempmatic-style) stuff is compatible with the Olds flavor?

Are the dash controls mainly the only difference? The heater box 'controllers' look the same across the marques... Could those controllers actually fit pre-'70 cars or post '76 vehicles?

I've been trying to hit the scrapyard pretty hard lately due to what some of the fools have been dragging/driving in across the scales...I'm low on time/room & am having to start being more picky in what I grab. I can't slack up though since I get this stuff for next-to-nothing.

Thanks.

 

Joel, I know Pontiac ATC stuff is different. My Pontiac bud in Roxboro has a 66 Bonneville Brougham with it and parts haven't been near as easy to find for that as the Olds versions. We know what it needs to make it work, but the stuff was platinum-priced ten years ago when we had time to mess with the car. The Pontiac stuff is expensive. I guess because it was installed in more Oldsmobiles than anything else, is why Olds C-tron parts are moreplentiful and cheaper than Pontiac's.

The trouble with Comfortron is that, although principle of operation is pretty much the same across the board, each Division used its own specific part #s and then changed them from year to year in an effort to make Comfortron reliable.

Bob Brannan told me once that from 66-73, the vast majority of their Zone level service work involved trying to get Comfortrons to work reliably.

But yeah, if you have the time and the room to pull the stuff and store it, somebody is going to need it someday. Just make sure to label what the parts came out of, becasue of that year-to-year change thing.

 

Howdy,
I resurrected my comfortron from the dead a few years back. The Olds Service Manual has some great procedures to get her running again.

#1 Check for vacuum!!!! There should be a vacuum tank mounted somewhere under the hood. Make sure that is getting vacuum. If it is, then check the black wire that runs from that to your power servo. Make sure that has vacuum too.

#2 Check the hot wire that runs from your junction block (Should be close to your battery) to your blower motor. I think it has a 30 or 20 amp fuse in it.

On my car I had 2 problems. One, my outside air door diaphragm had broken so no vacuum was getting to the system and #2 I had to replace the fuse in the wire from the junction block to the blower motor.

And remember...the factory service manual is your friend. That's how I figured mines out. And you know what's funny? I fixed mines about 6 years ago and since then I have swapped engines and now it is not working again. Nothing comes on at all. I haven't dug into it yet (Too cold) but as soon as I do I will start another Comfortron thread and link to it here. I remember I had to check my transducer to make sure it was getting proper vqcuum, then I had to check my dash switch and also the blower resistor. I followed the service manual steps to troubleshoot but in the end I had to put my thinkng cap on and use some common sense since I didn't have all the tools listed. Good luck and post what happens? I got my eye on this thread lol

 

Thanks for the info Glenn! It's interesting that there were so many running changes throughout the years. That positively sucks for me since my existing small pile-o-Comfortron stuff is 100% undocumented. Oh well...I'm doing a major shop reorg & have found several Sharpies...

maybe I'll eventually slowly match some of this stuff up with future arrivals. I've gotten a little better marking my newest scores before boxing it up & shelving it....


Thanks again

 

I know this is a really old thread, but I figured I'd put in my 2 cents about the Oldsmobile Comfortron. I was an Auto mechanic working in an Oldsmobile Dealership in the late 60's-late 70's, and let me tell you, it was Hell getting a car in to have a Comfortron repaired. It was a Bizarre and complicated "Rube Goldberg" kind of device, and even with the proper tools, it was never an easy repair. I guess one problem was that it was very different than anything most of us had ever worked on and it was hard to understand. It was also hard to get at some of the components Especially in a Toronado. It was nice reading about this, I haven't thought about the Comfortron in years.
Eagle

 

Sorry to dredge up bad memories! I have two Tempmatic cars which have their own idiosyncracies, but I'll take a Tempmatic over a Comfortron any day. And yes, I will still pass on a nice car if it has Comfortron.

Friend had a 67 Ninety Eight that had it and he called it "Gumpfortron" after Forrest Gump's box o' chawklets- you never knew what you were gonna get when you turned it on!