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Anyone done this 'transplant' ? Want to attempt it without discharging the system. What all is involved? Got a clean donor but don't know if the A/C was running good but very clean under the hood.
Can all the pulling be done from the engine compartment or do you have to pull the dash apart to get it removed/installed? I am thinking that the controls must have some additional vacuum lines that have to be run?
Even working alone, it's fairly easy to lift the entire refrigerant system out of the engine bay as a sealed unit. So for anyone wanting to delete the A/C system: it's NOT necessary to vent the refrigerant. Just take it out & leave it full. If you plan to NEVER put it back, take it to a shop and let them recover the refrigerant before you toss the system.
Your question is not R-134a conversion related but the concept is the same.
Looking at the pic of the system parts I am guessing I also need to grab the 'surround' that the evaporator is housed in since my truck doesn't have A/C now:
and the heater 'surround' can be left in place? (maybe that is wishful thinking). as can be seen in my pic I haven't started to tear into this...
Here's the whole enchilada, pulled from a '95 in case anyone gets to this thread wanting to do this in the future:
the biggest obstacles I found were: rusted hardware on the isolators at the bottom of the condenser I just cut the rubber ( I plan to eliminate those with simple brackets, it's going into a RWD maybe those don't have the isolators?), removing the heater box screws that are sandwiched between the side of the box and the inner fender ( I pulled the hood hinge bolt, and several fasteners to the fender (almost all) and was able to pry the back of the fender out enough to give more room and allow me to get my hand past the wheel well shroud to get on those bolts. I will try to post the broad strokes of getting it out if I am successful at getting it into my non-a/c truck and working.
the biggest obstacles I found were: rusted hardware on the isolators at the bottom of the condenser I just cut the rubber ( I plan to eliminate those with simple brackets, it's going into a RWD maybe those don't have the isolators?)...
Pretty sure whether it is 2 or 4 wheel drive is irrelevant. There would be rubber mounts to keep it from getting vibration related stress cracks.
Did you get the control panel from the same truck? Your panel wouldn’t have the positions for A/C correct?
We looked at a '93 RWD and it had 'brackets with a slot' welded to the bottom of the condenser to affix it to the radiator support bottom rail and no rubber. but we were only able to compare those two trucks. I haven't found any replacement condensers with the rubber isolators available from the vendors I use. the '93 only required the two bolts down there to be loosened to get the condenser to lift up and out. the rusty bolts I was facing needed to be removed and weren't coming out without cutting; the thin remnants of the extruded u-nuts that had split were just spinning in there with very little way to get a tool on them.
Yes, the non A/C trucks don't have enough settings for A/C but I had to get the control panel from another truck as the one in this truck didn't match mine (metal bevel gears vs. rack & pinion plastic mechanism). thought about taking the cable with it but it wasn't easy to trace the the routing and that cable wasn't operating real smoothly anyway.
Can't be done, without breaking the system and evacuating the refrigerant. I wouldn't even try.
Wrong. It can be grafted unbroken. PITA, but quite possible.
I think you are going to have to swap over all the controls, cables, ducts...etc. You might have to cut the firewall. I have heard it is quite the job on the bullnoses.
thanks for the feedback Jackie, I still have access to the donor truck this week so I should figure out if I need anything past the firewall other than the controls. I checked the wiring clips and they seem to match up and the vacuum connector has the same number of lines at the back of the control; hoping that the pigtail that goes in the top and out the back of the heater/blower surround in my picture that runs through the firewall will connect to the electric under the kickpanel and two vacuum lines behind the glovebox... again I will try to update here if this is a success (or failure).
Oh I just remembered, the ECM likes to know when the A/C it on...I know it bumps up the idle, maybe it gives more fuel/more timing. Might be wise to swap ECMS and connect the compressor switch to the ECM harness. You might need to weld in the A/C truck's firewall too.
I put that 3-ring circus in the truck today, found the source of water coming into the heater box when I removed the old one: the firewall in the top outside corner was pushed back behind the rest of the firewall, at assembly in 1996 they left the studs long and put a big slathering of duct sealer (the black gummy stuff) in that corner to fill the gap. So of course I had to persuade that area back in line to get a good fit to the bigger A/C heater box assembly. New gasket seems to have compressed nicely. Need to source some 'L' brackets to attach the condenser at the bottom, hardware store zinc plated should last a while yeah? is that steel particularly susceptible to failure due to vibration? the new condensers have stamped steel tabs down there, maybe more ductile... some pics:
Thanks for sticking with this thread, I will need more voices (aside from the ones in my head) to get this sorted.
Seems Jackie is on target in that the ECM controls the A/C coming on, with everything in my truck connected, the compressor clutch tested ok with 12v and a ground, the controls do what you expect them to do: heat/vent/warm/cold/3 fan settings all normal, no warm air on a/c settings, higher fan on MAX setting, but the compressor never comes on. Tracing the wiring back it seems like the low pressure switch (at the accumulator/dryer) and the power leads to the compressor don't communicate directly with each other. I don't find any A/C clutch relay or WOT relay so is the ECM doing all that analysis and turning on/off (or in my case NOT turning on) the power to the a/c compressor based on dash controls, low pressure switch & throttle? what about high pressure condition, did I miss a connector maybe? I think I will rig up a workaround to run the compressor for a short test and see if the system will produce cold air, should I put a 15a fuse in line with the 12v power to the compressor?
The ECM doesn't control the A/C coming on, it just wants to know if its on so it can bump up the idle speed. Pin 10 I believe, should b energized when the A/C clutch is powered. I think the + feed for the A/C comes off of the pressure switch on the drier and goes to the clutch and ECM pin 10, and the other side is grounded.
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