I just started the restore/rebuild of the air system on my 71 Cutlass Supreme convertible. I have enjoyed the many threads on this site and have learned a lot. I started a thread a few weeks ago asking for your opinions on how you recommend proceeding. I appreciate all your comments, recommendations. The system has been open since I bought the car almost 20 yrs ago. I am going to try to load the pictures, Hope it works....

 

see if that worked
nope..

 

try this WOW it worked. Nice car eh? actually this is my parts car. Now I'll try again Looking back thru my new post-SUCH FUN!! Do you see whats on the condenser? Shows what the critters think of my parts car !! HA!!

 

Not sure I'm doing this right. Ok seemed to work though these arent the pictures I meant to sent Im getting the hang of it. The pic on the right shows my car before I started removing anything. You can see how both the upper right bolt and stud seems too far off to the driver side. I have noticed this on other Cutlass/442's i've seen at shows. The 3rd pic is the a/c system I got with the car. The 1st 2 pics are from a parts car 72 Cutlass Supreme that is out in my field. I ended up taking out the entire a/c system off it and brought it into my garage on a wagon. I love parts cars!

 

Hi Greg, what does it look like now or is this current status? I would flush entire system,put on a reman compressor, filter drier,new hoses, orings, expansion valve and schrader valves. and reassemble, evacuate and add proper oil type for what type of freon that you are chosing.

Also you may need a good A/C guy that knows how calibrate your POA valve

Pat

 

Yep Pat i've been checking into it- Want to have a/c for the nats!! (actually the wife has been pushing for getting a/c fixed for years....) My buddy had his aftermarket system recharged and checked out by ARA shop on S.Cedar- I think I'll get with them. Got some more pics to load. 2nd pic- SURPRIZE!! didn't know there was a hole in evaporator cover! Pic shows hole in cover and cover I will use off parts car. Brought in whole system from 72 and believe it or not, still a little charge in it.. Looks really bad but at least semi sealed. Both the compressors I have arent seized and clutch feels OK. After taking out system from car noticed that oil has come out of evaporator so I'm pretty sure evap is leaking so its bad. Checked the one from the 72 and it also is greasy but not as much so I would say that 1 is bad also but it was holding some pressure after being unused for at least 20 years. I talked to the guy I bought that body from probably 15 yrs ago and he said that car did have really cold air back in the day. Probably will replace the evap or might take the better looking one in to ARA and have checked. Middle pic is firewall w/evap housing removed- see where hole for screw is off to drivers side from where slot is? Can see where old sealer is stuck to firewall. I wonder if assembly worker just got in a little off-maybe self drilling/tapping screw? I think I'll seal that hole w/black rtv and redrill another when reinstall-shouldnt be able to see when back on. Also I noticed that my car has no firwall stamp- probably been painted over.. Also I see lower stud is bent so thats an easy fix. 4th pic is parts from parts car- look rusty/crusty but maybe better stuff than off my "good" car. I then went inside car and removed seat for access and removed heat/ac from under dash. Checked the vacuum pots and they ball worked as should. BUT couldn't figure out why air door that controls defrost or heat never went to heat when vacuum released. See 5th pic- checked svc manual and saw there is supossed to be a spring from door to case-Gone.. Went out to 72- yep had one-- LOVE PARTS CARS!!!

 

Yep my car also has the infamous molded in bolt- I'm guessing they got s bolt in the mold somehow and every heater house they make from that mold will have "THE BOLT" in it . Looks like one of those hex headed bolts.

 

This looks to be a fun thread to watch, as I need to finish my AC resto this spring or so.
I did the evap housing and heaterbox as part of my underhood resto - came out great.
Hoses and condenser are ready to be installed but still debating on what compressor to use.
Oven cleaner will clean your box up well. Also 3M Strip Calk will work well at sealing the box halves and box to the firewall. Check for air leaks after the box is reinstalled and seal more if needed.
Get the hoses rebuilt with barrier hose in case you want to use R134.
So far, the only place I have found evap cores with the correct top pipe bend is Classic Auto Air in Florida.
You can calibrate your POA valve yourself if you have gauges, an air compressor, and some scrap hose fittings. I have a procedure around here somewhere. I have done it and is quite easy.

 

Ok That wasn't too hard now that I've got it figured out. I will post more progress as it goes along. As I mentioned before I sure have gotten a lot of info and enjoyment from this site and all your threads, So I want to pass anything I can on to others. I am still looking at Rob's and Oskar's threads about their a/c jobs and others. My plans on this job were to be checking out the evaporator, replacing the hoses, getting the poa valve recalibrated for R134A, replacing the original style A6 compressor and replacing the condensor w/a Classic air condenser that's made for R134a. Now my plans may have changed a little. I may send out the compressor off the parts car and have it rebuilt-also send the POA to be recalibrated. What do you think?? Thanks.

 

Quite sure I'm going to go w/Classic air for the condenser for 134.

 

Got the parts from Classic Auto Air. Looks like everything I need. Looks like it'll all fit. I'm a little worried about the evaporator, looks like thte top tube out of it is bent down compared to both the used evaporators I have. If it is bent I'm guessing it happened in shipping though everything was very well packaged. I may call them tomorrow before I open it. It was quite pricey-over $1700.00! But I decided to do it right the 1st time and replace the probably OK evaporator. Basically everything is going to be new. I went with the special condenser for R134a also. Hers a few pics..

 

Haven't put the under dash heater a/c assembly back in yet. Went out to garage earlier today expecting to get so much done but had to clear the bench of snowmobile parts, etc then when going to put in the under dash assembly found that my old florescent trouble light quit working. So tried to repair that and spent half an hour repairing it then finally found had a bad bulb, so threw in trash(old) and decided to buy a new light. So anyway decided to work on thing could do without trouble light, Cleaned out evaporator housings. Scraped inside of the fiberglass housing and found that it scratches. So I'm not going to scrape the outside. I'm going to get some oven cleaner per Rob Young's recommendation and clean it up. Here's more pics...

 

nice Ill be watching this thread as well.

question $1700 ? I thought they offered a complete replacement set-up for about $1k or am I mistaken

 

Cool!
Is that a new A6 compressor down there?
Use only plastic brushes on the fiberglass - as you found out it scratches easily. Simple Green can be used with pretty good results if you do not have oven cleaner. Do not use the oven cleaner on metal or painted parts.
What did you decide on the POA valve?

Maybe your progress will motivate me to continue my AC resto!

 

I decided to go with a stock type system. I know they have a aftermarket type system that would be the way I would go If the car didn't have factory air. I basically replaced every operating part in the system except the under dash and the blower motor. I'll bet I could have done it cheaper but I'm fixing this car for the long run. It will probably be here longer than I am. Uggg..

 

Yep, well actually rebuilt. I had them calibrate a poa for 134a. Rob, I asked you a question on your under hood thread about the stick goop that goes around the bulb. I didn't get that stuff and need it . You think I could get it at a parts store or something? Thanks Greg

 

Yes, the tar-cork stuff can be had at a local AC shop. If you have trouble finding some, I have extra I can send ya.

Did CAA rebuild your old compressor or is this a generic rebuilt unit from 4S or such?
I toyed with the idea of them rebuilding my old one but their 3 month warranty did not give me a warm fuzzy feeling......

 

Thought I didnt have a firewall stamp or it was removed or painted over but after removing the evaporator housing and looking closely I see it is way up under the fender inside the housing about where the blower motor is..

 

It's a rebuilt 1 from CCA. Hope it's a good one. I have heard horror stories about buying compressors from auto zone or the like. I decided to get everything from CCA so if there's a problem its easier to resolve (I hope)---- NO I HOPE NO PROBLEMS AT ALL... ha ha . I will check into getting some tar-cork-Thanks.

 

Had a really hard time getting the paint off the evaporator housing. The bigger side was off my car and it had been painted. The smaller side was off the parts car and was natural, It cleaned up really easy. I would have liked to use both parts off the parts car but the bigger piece was damaged. I scraped on the inside of the housing and found that it scratches really easily, so I couldn't use a scraper. I tried oven cleaner and It worked some. I ended up using aircraft stripper. (Nasty stuff). The paint started to come off but it was slow going. Ended up putting on stripper and brushing with a plastic scrub brush and a couple old tooth brushes. After the 4th time it looks pretty good. Found another molded in screw! (4th pic) Isn't that strange!

 

Glad to see everything looks good inside the r/f fender. No moisture is accumulating- Car was restored about 8 yrs ago. I blew out the bottom of the lower fender area w/air. A bunch of dust and some maple leaf seed pods blew out, (we call 'em helicopters here). Had to take out radiator, really didn't want to do it, thought I could just push it rearward and put condensor in in front of it, but couldn't. I was going to install the condenser but It has the reciever/dryer attached to it and CCA said don't open the dryer and install it until ready to seal up the system because there is desicant in it and if left open it will get saturated w/moisture from the air. So I was going to install the condenser and the go thru the grill and put on the dryer later.. But that won't work so I will wait and install the condenser/dryer as the last step.

 

Did you saturate the part with oven cleaner and keep it wet for 10-15 minutes? Paint came off easily from mine when i did it... But then again it was in summer and heat helps that stuff work.

I found two in my heater box - it means you are about to get............

 

It ended up being no problem to straightening up the new evaporator. I just looked back thru Rob's under hood thread and saw the questions about mounting the dryer and how the aftermarket condensers don't mount the dryer exactly as stock, and yep that's the case here. I thought it must mount using the holes and self taping screws but then I noticed some threaded holes and I saw they are probably for the dryer strap mounts. So I tried to thread in to them and found it was a metric thread!! Don't really like the Idea of metric bolts on my 1971 Olds, but I guess they will work. I also noticed (as mentioned in Rob's thread) that the after market dryer is smaller in diameter than the original. Last pic shows the "monkey dung" we use at work for sealing holes in siding,etc. It comes in big bricks and you can roll it out into little strips. I used it between the evaporator halves and it seems good. When I scraped off the old stuff it appeared identical. I may use this when I attach the case back to the fire wall. I'll probably try it and if I don't like it i'll use the 3m chalk tape.

 

Decided to clean up these nasty old brackets off the parts car to put on my convertible. I have the original brackets that look alot better but would also have to be cleaned and repainted. I'm going to put the brackets off the convertible on my 70 Vista Cruiser. The engine in the wagon isn't cleaned up and the brackets off the 71 should look at home on it.

 

Yeah I let it sit for about 1 hr-maybe too long. But the stripper did ok. I know you were doing yours in hot temps and maybe that was the difference, or maybe the paint on mine was different type, or?? I must say that by the description you gave of the high temps you deal with there in Texas, I think my working conditions are better than yours was..

 

Hey Greg, Very nice job, always pays to 'do it right the first time'....patch jobs are always a crap shoot..

 

Thanks, Just hope it all works as it should when done. Of course everything takes so much longer than say repairing a 10 yr old beater because you want it to look good...

 

All except for the oven cleaner performance. I got to use it in oven-like temps, where it worked better!

 

Had some left over oven cleaner so gave to the wife to use in the oven -guess what- DIDN'T WORK!!! yep I bought that cheap oven cleaner from the big W store. She said ez off is much better. This stuff I bought is no good... I guess this explains it.

 

I used the heavy duty "great value" brand from Wally's - worked great on everything it touched. It was in a yellow and white can. Fumes were unbearable, too. I assumed the "fumeless" variety was no good.

 

Yep I bought the fume free stuff, Should have known if it don't smell bad it's no good!!

 

Yep, cleaners falls along the same rule as pet food. If it stinks, its got to be good...........

 

Very cool and informative thread Greg! I will find some use for this for sure when I do the '65....

 

Thanks Erik. I sure have enjoyed your Vista thread and Rob's under hood thread, I'm sure this one wont be anywhere what those are!!

 

Well, it's going back together. Put the POA valve on the evaporator and the expansion valve. Coiled up the copper tubes from both using a socket to wrap around. Just tried to make it look sort of organized and not too nasty. They both would be better if they were the correct length as the factory parts were but it seems to look OK. Put the assembled evaporator housing back on the firewall. At first couldn't get on all the way- found out I didn't have on the pilot stud which is above the heater motor. Would have been nice to have some help on this but I took it back off and retried. Looked like 2nd time was a charm as I got it on.
I was sure it was ok but as I saw in Rob Young's thread I better try the heater motor to make sure no leaks. I hooked up a battery to the heater motor and sure enough could feel air coming around the it up under the fender.... So ,instead of taking it all back off I removed just the motor out of the housing and put more "monkey dung" (it's actually called duct seal) around the joint from the inside and now its good.

 

Painted up some of the brackets and put on the engine. It's kind of a puzzle putting together. Not too long after I got this car probably in 1995 of so I cleaned up and painted the engine, etc. At that time I cleaned off all the grease on the right inner fender with some type of 409 type cleaner and a wire brush- Well I scratched the plastic inner fender pretty bad. So since I had it back apart this time I decided to clean it up- or remove the scratches- They were pretty noticeable. I bought some fine "no scratch" scotch brite and it wouldn't do anything, So I tried some regular scotch brite and it didnt seem to remove the scratches. So I quit that job. When I came back after the water had dried I saw that where I had scrubbed it looked like sh*t. Looked real cloudy. So I decided to use the inner fender off the parts car. I removed the flap that I had replaced years ago on the scratched inner fender and put it on the parts car IF. Used my staple gun-- worked pretty good!! I backed it up with a 4x4 and then pulled off and bent over the ends. Got the inner fender back in. After its all in I think maybe I should have left the scratches as this IF has some issues also. Oh well..

 

Glad you took care of this issue then, instead of loosing airflow. I packed mine on the outside, but should have done the inside as well. Oh well...

 

Went to attach the new lines to the compressor and had a problem. The compressor comes from Classic Auto Air full of oil so I didn't want to spill it all out, so I went to attach the lines to the compressor on the bench holding it with the back end up. It comes with a short bolt holding a plate over the ports. Removed the bolt and got the thicker correct plate off the old compressor. After getting the plate cleaned up and painted, I attempted to put together the hoses on the compressor. Couldn't get it. The bolt was too short... Measured the old and new houses and found the new hose ends were 1 1/8" thick whereas the old ones were 1" !!! It seems nothing is easy when working with aftermarket parts. So I searched thru all my old bolts and couldn't find 1 so now I'm going to have to go to hardware and get another bolt. I put it together on the bench with the plate I got with the new compressor but can see its too thin. (shown in pic) So I went ahead and mounted the receiver/dryer to the condenser. As i mentioned earlier the new dryer is smaller in diameter than the original (aftermarket stuff again...) so I had to add some strip caulk type stuff to the inside of the straps. Looks ok. Then put in the condenser. Had to hook up the line to the dryer before putting in condenser. It fit ok. Then could put radiator back in. A pretty good day overall. Tomorrow I'll go get a bolt and hopefully will mount the compressor and last of the lines. I have to call CCA and ask how to wire up the over pressure switch. There wasn't any instructions with all this stuff.

 

Put the air cleaner and heat box around exhaust and heat tube back on to make sure it all fits- looks good. 2nd pic is of the adapter fittings, the bottom fittings are from Classic Auto Air. You can see the one on the bottom left is smaller than the others. If you look really carefully you'll see the 1 on the bottom right, the schrader valve is smashed. The smaller one won't fit at all, the other one I screwed up but trying to screw on to the old compressor. I called CCA and asked what might be wrong here and Ron said he couldn't help me unless I could send him a digital pic. I said that it was just wrong-the fitting was too small like trying to screw a 1/2" pipe fitting onto a 3/4" pipe. He said just go to a local parts store and pick up some 134a adapters-which is what I did. I then asked if I should remove the schrader valves out of the original R12 fittings, Ron said no. I really felt like I was a moron and I was wasting his time- Seems like he was alot more helpfull when I was spending the big bucks... Well anyway... Got the upper fittings from NAPA and they are the correct size, got the 90degree adapter for the low side and guess what?? They wont work unless you remove the schraders from the R12 fittings!!! On the right is the wiring that came from CCA for the Hi/Low pressure switch. 3rd pic is removing schrader valve from low side fitting. last pic is 90 degree fitting installed. Well can't get pics to load. I'll come back and add them later.

 

Well, pics did load on last post-- Put belt on compressor and noticed belt doesn't seem straight. Got looking at water pump and crank pulley and noticed WP pulley is in about 1/8" more than the crank pulley. See straight edge going along crank pulley. I ordered some shims and will correct. Must have been like that a long time-never caused a problem but I want fixed. 2nd pic shows how I wired the high/low switch instead of using the white wires supplied. It looks more correct. The Hi/Low switch is a saftey switch that CCA recommends. It shuts off the compressor if the system pressure is too high or low. It splices into the green wire to the compressor clutch. I mounted it down so it's less obvious. Last pic shows the a/c charging gauges I borrowed from work. You are supposed to draw it down to a vacuum and let the pump run for a hour or 2 and then valve it off and let set. If the gauge lets off the vacuum you have a leak. I pumped it down until the gauge was pegged and left on for 2 hrs, then turned off and it sat for 4-5 hours last time I checked was still pegged-- GOOD.