I want to add A/C to my 86. I plan on scrounging the junkyards for parts. Is it worth my time? Has anyone done this? Any tips?

Thanks

 

I need to add a/c to my 83. I'm having a 400 installed so I need to know what to do to hook up an a/c system. Maybe f100 and I can scrounge the junkyards together.

 

I did on my 81 Bronco. I got lucky and got cold a/c with alll junkyard parts. I just put the 134a conversion on and filled it myself. Including freon, I have less than 150$ in it. When buying junkyard a/c parts, I was told if you find a wet spot on something, it ussually means a leak.

 

I worked at a shop for quite a while doing ac work. I did quite a few conversions from R12 to R134. What you need to watch for on the R12 is anything that looks oily cause if it is leeking R12 its going to leave an oily substance. You gotta be really careful when you do the switch, use 6 ounces of ester oil in the ac system cause otherwise it will mess up your seals after a while if you go from R12 to R134.

 

Switching from non-air to a/c is pretty easy, just unbolt the airbox from the engine side of the airbox, get all the components from under the hood, and the switch in the dash if you want, but all you need inside is a means to turn the pump on and off, which on some of the later trucks was done simply with a lighted on-off push button switch. Many cars do it like that as well, so my preference would be to just use a lighed switch like that, or if you can't find one of those, and don't care about appearance, use a lighted toggle switch...Get the under hood wiring harness though, so that the high and low switches can turn the pump off in case they need to. This info only works though if you do not have the high output heater. If you have a high output heater, which it states right on the airbox, you will not be able to change it so easily. Another quick way to determine which heater style you have is to look at where the heater hose go. If they go right to the firewall and pass through, you have a standard output. If you wuld have to remove the airbox to get the heater core out, it is a high output unit.

 

Redneck, I need to charge the AC in my '91 but it uses R-12. If I understand you correctly, I can add the adapter fittings and just charge the car's unit by adding the 134a to the R-12...making sure to use one of the cans that includes the oil and perhaps leak suppressant?

 

I may get flamed and argued with, but when I got my 86, I did nothing more than add the fittings and charge it up, it still had some R-12 in it, but not enough to make it cool much at all. It has worked for 2 years that way, and will freeze you out quite nicely. I have done that to some others, same result. I know how it is working and such, can't validate what others say about it not working, but I look for the kits that state compatible with R-12 systems, and have been ok so far, never had an issue with the peanut butter goo or black death... Personally, my opinion on black death is that somehow too much H2O got in, the dessicant in the accumulator disintegrated, and the particles are the black crud you see. That can happen even with an R-12 system that never had 134 introduced, and water in the system is the reason, whether it be by not properly vac'ing the system down or what, it gets in and the dessicant chemically removes it as long as it can, and when there is too much moisture in the system, it breaks down. That is why the accumulator is recommended to be replaced every time a system is opened, definitely if open for over an hour.

 

Crosbo if I was you and I wanted the AC to work and to work well, what I would do would be to suck down the system, change the adapters on the lines and charge it with R134 then take and add the ester oil. You can get one of those kits for about 20 bucks. If the way Fellro86 did it worked for him then he got damn lucky. But if you want to do it well and do it for the cheapest amount of money and make sure that it stays working I would suck down the system change the adapters on the line, charge it with 134a adn add the ester oil. But thats just me. I have worked on ac for quite a while and thats the most successful way that I know to get it to work.

 

I tend to agree with you...as my father was an AC guy and that's what he said...but the challenge is vacating the system. I don't have a vacuum pump to do so and the stealers always want to charge an arm and leg to do so...something about not allowing the existing R12 to enter the atmosphere. Know another to suck the system down?

 

the dealers have a recovery system to be able to catch the r-12 and recycle it. They also can do that with r-134 too. I was in the same boat, no way to vac it down,and they actually took the schrader valve out, so that money was wasted and still had to do it again, as well as get a replacement valve...I do recommend if you have the means to vac the system to be on the safe side. If it is already empty, and you know someone that has a freezer or fridge that has lost it's charge, you can make a vacuum pump out of the compressor from them, use one of the charge hoses that come with the kits, or buy a cheap one and use it, hook it up to the suction side of the pump, and a vacuum guage, and your set. I happened to pick up an r-12 maniflod guage set a while back, and since I have no access to r-12 any more, I hooked up the source valve to the pump, and spliced a hose to the r-134 fitting, works pretty slick. Not every pump will run continuous though, some will cut out after a while. I took one from a freezer that had worked, but the lid was nothing more than a sheet of tin, no insulation or anything and made mine from that.

 

Thanx Fellro. Yep, I remember that is what my dad's was made of, a refrigerator compressor. I remember from the time I was a small boy all the way thru when I was in college and subsequently married...memories of dad pumping down a customer's car and loading cans of freon...and of ice-cold air conditioning. I honestly don't think today's AC's come close...then again, there are several different ideas as to what really constitutes "ICE COLD AIR".

Thanx for the advice guys.