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Which area won,t the hoses come apart at, I can,t remember which is the condenser or the evaporator. When I did mine a few years back the hoses would not come apart at that thing behind the grill. Ended up having to take the grill shell off.
The evaporator is in the HVAC plenum on the firewall. That's the fittings that wont come loose.
I had to remove the insert and the hood latch bracket to get to the condenser but I will remove my grill shell just because I don't want it to get damaged now that the center support is gone.
In-cab Controls: stock or stock looking vs aftermarket (e.g. Vintage Air)
I'm using a Original Air retrofit kit specifically for the 78-79 Ford truck and Bronco with a modern compressor (R134a) and keeping the big plenum but going to make it look a whole lot better. Replacing all the hoses and fittings, rebuilding the condenser and evaporator. I'm going to keep the original in cab controls but I will be cleaning things up and fixing some minor problems I'm having with the vacuum actuators. I'm sure while I have things apart I might as well (Fill in the blank here).
And all the while I'll be learning all about automotive air conditioning systems.
This might sound dumb, but did you try turning the nuts in the opposite direction? In some AC systems (not sure about automotive) some threads are reversed, i.e. Carrier systems for warehouses after 198-something. I remember this from a Navy school I went to but in 2002. Just be sure to use line wrenches. A regular open end wrench is a sure way to round the nut.
10 mpg, oh my goodness aren't you concerned with all the dinosaurs your burning up?
Hi Steve, your truck is still beautiful.
Still chopping wood down here in LALA.
Hey Marc! CC eats Dino for lunch all the time. I have been down to LA a lot but I have been busy with work. We need to catch up some time on my next LA trip.
The HVAC plenum removal was a major PITA. At one point I was considering scraping the original system and getting all new after a few choice words where spoken. Once I got the thing out I managed to get the small hose fitting off but the large hose just didn't budge so I will take it along with the condenser to the radiator shop and have those guys deal with it when they rebuild it.
I cleaned out the plenum and got it looking much better now its time to rebuild all the components to the system. Does anyone have any ideas on what to replace the foam on the dampers with?
When I did mine I looked for and found a rubber supply warehouse here in the valley that stocked a bunch of different types of rubber. I found a loose neoprene that worked well.
The only problem is that it's harder than the original foam so it doesn't crush as easy. It took a while for it to crush and close all the way. Here in SoCal it wasn't a problem but when it was fresh Scott and I took a hunting trip up to Montana and since Scott was on the passenger side, cold air was blowing on his feet until we taped it shut.
As careful as you are some trimming would prolly fix that.
I spent some time during the week to work on the plenum, cleaning, rebuilding and putting things back together. Everything I did was pretty standard but I had to come up with a way to fix the foam rubber (That was no longer) on the dampers. After some experimenting I came up with the idea to use felt. I applied the felt to the inside heater damper and for the re circulation damper I used camper shell weather striping as a pad and applied the felt over the weather striping. The fix mad a perfect seal over the openings so my passengers wont have cold (or warm) feet.
Test spin the fan motor. That thing draws a full 12 Amps at 13 volts.
Made a template to cut the felt for the damper.
Don't have to worry too much about the edges as they won't be seen. I used upholstery spray glue hopefully the adhesive will last.
This weekend I'll be cleaning the engine where I couldn't reach due to the box and re installing the plenum. I decided to order a new condenser instead of repairing the old one so that will be coming on Monday.
I have been traveling for work so I fell behind on the HVAC rebuild project but its about 95% done. I have everything installed and the hoses crimped. I need to make a few minor adjustments with the condenser/dryer positions so the coolant lines are straight. (No I don't have OCD.) More photos to follow shortly in the meantime while I was away I got a gift in the mail. My Marti report that I ordered last summer finally came in.
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
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I have been down to LA a lot but I have been busy with work. We need to catch up some time on my next LA trip. 
