A/C Restoration

[AMXguy]

I decided to get the factory A/C working again in my challenger.  I'm going to use all the original inside  stuff and I've ordered all the under the hood stuff new .

My evaporator  has been unhooked and unpluged for many years, should I replace it?  rebuild it?  test it?  try it?     I don't know much about A/C  I'm not sure what is supposed to be done with it. 

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I just redid the A/C on my Challenger, Evaporator & Condenser I flushed, if you have a air compressor Auto Zone has the flushing tool in their loaner program... Free!! Score!! They also loan a Vacuum Pump... Anyway, the way I went about it since I didn't want a mess in my engine compartment, I hooked a #10 fitting up to the suction size of the evaporator, & a #6 to the fitting where the expansion valve connects, & attach a 3-4' length of hose to each.. Don't try to force it all the way on it'll be coming apart anyway... So now you need the flushing tool & flushing solvent... Flushing solvent used to consist of R141 which used to be cheap, I just checked online & now it's $160 a gallon.. I passed.. For the past few years I've used Denatured Alcohol... It does a decent job, as long as the system isn't full of metal it works fine... If the system is full of metal you need to replace the Evaporator & condenser, period... Anyway, a gallon is $14 & it'll do two systems pretty throughly.. So, free flushing tool, cheap flush solvent a few fittings, direct the waste solvent into a bucket.. Flush away... When your done flushing blow compressed air through the system for 15-20 minutes to evaporate the alcohol & put the system in a vacuum to boil off anything that might remain... The open the system, inject oil in the components, reassemble & vacuum again for 1/2 hour & charge it up...

[AMXguy]

Thanks I'll clean it out before I go any farther.

Has anyone put the Sanden compressor on a six pack car?   I bought all the stuff from Buchillion but since it's a custom fit set up there are lots of way to route the hoses and mount the condenser.   my car is an original 383 4V afactory A/C car so I'm just going to the original firewall hook ups.

I'm going to use the original dryer bracket and condensor brackets , with alterations of course.  but can you use any hard lines off an original or is it best to go all hose?

Any pictures would be very helpful.   I want it to look as original as I can given the  limits of what's possible.
 

[ShelbyDogg]

I have A/C on all 3 of my e-bodies. I even added factory A/C to my 70 Chall-R/T (383 now 440) in the 80s. (I sweat easily)

One thing that you can plan out is the hose routing since you are adding an aftermarket compressor. The factory route was to have the low pressure side come from one side, and the high pressure going to the battery side. This causes problems when pulling the engine or just pulling off the water pump. The compressor has to be pushed or held out of the way if you don't want to lose your freon.

If you route both of your comp. lines to the passenger side and plan your condenser lines to use the new or old condenser, you can swing the whole thing to the side while working on the engine.

[roadman5312]

This is what I did on Toxicwolf's Challenger. I took the original hoses, cutoff the ferrels and old rubber hose. Had new ferrels welded on the metal sections, then hade them powdercoated. Got the 2 fittings for the compressor (#8 and #10 90 degree short drop) and 2 inline splicers with sercive ports. At that point it was just a matter of mocking the hose and crimping the ferrels. We wanted to retain the original metal tubing portions for a somewhat factory look. Installed a new drier, expansion valve, evacuate and charge. Worked like a champ. I can duplicate this for anyone that has their original hoses. Hope this helps.