Bill: Coming along great. So that is how my booster ans m/c will look next May after they sre installed. If you do the seat covers yourself, they say to put a hefty bag over the springs before putting the seat covers on so they slide on easier, and then rip/pull the bag off. Sorry, I can't help with the a/c questions - mine is a 71 w/o a/c. Good Luck and a belated Merry Christmas to you and Pat. UticaGeoff ps Any luck locating a radiator support?
Back at ya pal!! Hope youre nimble for the under dash hook up. The brake light switch is threaded, but only pushes in or out against a spring clip in the bracket. I made the mistake of taking mine apart for mtce. which it didn't need. Look at the switch pic. Theres aground screw to the left with a wire on it. The SL switch bracket is above thatwith the same kinda screw facing the opposite direction. Totally dyslexic left handedness. I felt like a contortionist under mine, but the job went well. Don't forget the brake kleen and several coats of clear gloss. Id start on that now in the basement. What smells better, an apple pie in the stove or fresh spray paint? DO NOT ASK PAT! LOL... Still weighing options on the core support. Ive got a bunch of 1/8" aluminum diamond plate and a spool gun for the MIG so I may fab up new stuff and just whack off the bad and bolt it together. On the seats, I am hoping to skin the hides and leave the foam in place; that is if its still intact. Ive heard that old foam flattens out and looks pretty crappy under a reskin job. We hafta see on that one. Alas... the holidays only added to the drama in Tx. Ill try to PM you on that later. Jesus H. Christopher Jones! Its like getting yer feet stuck in the mud and the only way out is through a pile of doggy doo-doo!:spank: Got the compressor and condenser today so we'll start to play mock up on that stuff. Lotsa subtle differences from year to year etc... I often wonder what a line mechanic would do at a dealer when the right parts are outa stock or different even back in the day??? Bill in TR
I was just playing around yesterday with two thumbs that got layed open on an apple corer... damn chinese stuff; wont cut an apple but sure will do a number on thumb tips LOL... Then theres the band aid crisis. everything has to be gramma proof. Used to have a simple tin box, pop it open, grab a strip, pull the red string and PRESTO! A band aid in your hand. Cover the cut and when it got wet or dirty, it fell off and you replaced it. So Wun Fun Tung graduates from US college with surgical dressing design degree... Hmmm... Now theres a child proof box, with some kinda silicone gummy stips with a 3/8 X 1/2" pad that's barely big enough for a paper cut, and that's after peeling the outer paper off in 20 little pieces, contaminating the sterile pad to get the backing off, and having the china rubber curl up on itself and tossing that one away and starting all over. WHAT WOULD GRAMMA DO? Wrap it in a paper towel, and use some adhesive tape to secure it and keep baking. I hate being told whats good for me. PERIOD. Let ME make the choice; and lets not forget the sticky **** that stays behind; a double Hmmm...Basturds stick so good that when you peel the strip off, it pulls the wound back open starting the process all over again. Then you hafta clean the goo off with acetone/ nail polish remover to get the stuff off for a clean sterile field, AGAIN. That stuff burns down to the bone, and I aint no sissy/ China man 7, Willy, ZERO. Im sticking with a paper towel and duct tape because the duct tapes' stuck on me! This was all at 0700hrs Christmas day. Rant over!! So being thumbless. I got the new to me compressor all washed up (looked pretty good for starters) and ran a tap through all the threaded holes on the pump and brackets for a pretty smooth mounting. The PO had flattened the alternator arm so that needed addressing. GM in their infinite wisdom put two hash marks (not hash tags !!!!! I HATE HASH TAGS. Arent those stains in yer drawers??) across the arm to show where to clamp it in a vise to bend it at the correct point for a near perfect offset. Arm is now on water pump bolt. and BEHIND the alternator and made up onto AC main upper bracket. Once tightened up, all adjustments slide with minimal binding. Im a happy cowboy eating roasted hot dogs and beans for dinner after bein' on the trail since sun-up LOL... Bill in TR
Been kind of offline for the holidays. Your work looks very nice. A few things...the dist advance shaft that was sticking...if you want to clean that really well, dist has to come out, and gear removed. That shaft should snap the weights back completely and easily every time you extend the weights. If it's been stuck a long time...a few drops of oil will not really free it up completely, and it won't really work itself free. It will help a bit. The shaft is gummed up, it's actually 2 shafts...an inner and outer. The pins, weights and pads need to be cleaned and LIGHTLY lubed, like maybe a small amount of Dexron on the pads and bottom of the weights. Too much will fling around. You can see somebody has messed in there, because you can see the weights have been flipped over. I've been all over my AC system. You should replace the Shrader valve cores. I don't know if you have rad cross bars, but some driers won't fit with some bars. A fin comb is kind of worthless on the condenser, but HF has them. It's easier to just straighten them with a small pick or screwdriver. Be sure to use the Nylog I told you about...it's good stuff. Your alt belt should be on the forward groove of the pulley. Your AC belt will be OVER the rear groove, it will not fit into the alt pulley at all. Weird, but the groove is just for clearance. The hoses, lines, and muffler have to be just so. It gets VERY busy on that side of the engine, it's easy to damage stuff that's expensive to fix. Make sure you have a bracket to hold your muffler to the inner fender. Make sure you have the wire clamp to hold your bat cable to the hose and muffler and hold your hose away from the belt. You should put oil in the condenser, evap, etc. There are specified amounts. You need to inspect the orifice screen in the expansion valve. The small metal hose that goes into the expansion valve...if you remove it...there is a TINY sock shaped screen in there. At the least, you need to inspect it. Definitely new orings every place, the POA, hoses, expansion valves etc.
Here is a pic of my AC hoses when I got the car. You can see where the belt cut through the hose and some moron "fixed" it. This is a 70 AC set up, yours is just a bit different but about the same. You can see how there was no insulation on my muffler, and no bracket to hold it to the inner fender and AWAY from the belt. Cost me probably 1K just parts to straighten all that crap out. New condenser, evaporator, drier, replaced hoses, ex valve, POA brackets, etc.
WOW FRANK!!! That's a lot to digest! I thank you for the time to respond... The dist. weights flipped over never dawned on me. Looking back at the pic, is as found. Hmmm... Shiny spots from the buttons and all. I couldn't venture a guess when that happened. They cleaned up very well on the wire wheel, but now I hafta recheck them for correct placement. Hmmm 2X. Ultimately, I plan on pulling the unit out to really go through it, but one thing I learned at the power plant was using 3 in 1 oil will break gunk loose(!) since theres some kinda solvent in it. We always used it on blower motors on heaters etc. An old electrician said to never use motor oil for that reason. Ive been sold ever since. I remember very well about the AC belt not riding on the alt. pulley. I remember old Caddies had a double belt on the AC and a double on the alternator. Nothing like redundancies for creature comforts eh? I just received an O ring kit for the AC stuff... green and black rings. Im not sure yet about R12 vs 134a or the newer green stuff. Any input is appreciated on that issue! ANYONE??? The core support has the cross bars with the offset to clear the cond. There is also a muffler clamp on the inner fender; but you are correct about it getting really busy over there! Ill hafta wait for the fenders to go back on before I get too much further with the hoses. I hate to strain aluminum stuff. That whole party is about to get started in another week or so... Fender bottom repairs, door bottom corners and a hinge overhaul to boot. If you have the chance to grab some more pics, Id appreciate it. Im a BIG camera fan. I really need to see the routing on the hoses at the evap. end and the cond. end. Mines a 1972, and I just picked up a used 1971 condenser. My, my, my !! One good thing about living at the 45th parallel is we need heat more than AC... We live a block off the lake! Bill in Two Rivers Wi. Front frame rails went to the dentist today. He said brush daily with a stainless steel wire tooth brush. Damn tartar gets in everywhere don't it? Gave it a fluoride treatment and will get the efferdent treatment tomorrow! So the clutch power feed is run through a "device"... is this a fusible link? Theres 2 wires and 2 posts used with a blank. It shows continuity across. It has a clip on feature and a screw hole type mount as well. Any ideas?? Spent almost 2 hours cleaning shop and putting tools away... yeah right. Thats a daily job in my shop. This is a corner after painting today (!!?)...
One more quickie question. The condenser I bought looks like it was maybe dropped... not too sure. Is this bent on purpose, or is it a faux pas? Can I straighten it if necessary or is it a gawner?? This is the '71 model unit. I have a '72 that was in a fire and this fitting has a smooth radius 90 on it with a hose barb... looks factory to me. Hate to start hose barbing stuff if I can help it! Bill in TR
The orientation of the weights, up or down doesn't matter. I only pointed it out because you could see someone messed there before. The dist will definitely be better, but I've done a lot of them and usually you really need to take them apart once they are gunked up. The AC oring kit i bought was mostly green rings, but a few black like the large comp. rings. Your condenser is toast. DO NOT TOSS IT...if you buy a replacement you can reuse the original brackets, they are a LOT better than what you get. I bought a "show" quality condenser off ebay, it's not fabulous...but with the original brackets it's ok. I wouldn't worry about a Chinese drier, although get one with a sight glass. Look on ebay hard, you can get them new for 15.00 or so. You can buy a kit off ebay for the Shraders, they are different. R12...134A...Freeze 12 or whatever is your call. I'm going R12. It looks like maybe your expansion valve needs to be turned a bit...it should not like parallel with the firewall, but maybe 20-30 degrees tipped forward towards the core support. Makes no difference, but the hoses are bent to fit one way nicely, and like I said...it gets real busy over there. If you look at my pic, you can see that belt is too long. The adjusting bolt should always be in about the middle or so of the slot length. That belt being too long is partly the reason it hit the hose. Partly because there was no muffler bracket, and partly because a moron did it. You can buy the muffler insulation repro now. Now would be the time to do it, you can only do it when the hose is off. You can make your old insulation look new with "Forever Black". I will try to take some pics soon for you.
So there I was watching the primer dry... it got a little chilly up here last night so it takes longer for stuff to dry. I got a heads up on the AC condenser and the piping. Spent about 2 hours with a needle nose and an awl straightening fins, which surprising enough, weren't bent up that bad. This is NOT the one from the burned out car, it came off a runner from a member here with the compressor. It was a closed unit until it was opened for dis-assembly. Took all the mounts off and wire wheeled them (really miss the blast cabinet!!), got it painted and hung by the chimney with care... Also straightened out the connection on the Cond that was bent over. Got luck with some good malleable aluminum and a nice long skinny drift pin. Moved it into correct position and fitting screwed together by hand. No O rings installed yet as this is still in the mock up stage. I may need to get a new high pressure line as the one I have is bent twice and both are the wrong direction. Anyone have a take off or a contact to get a new one?. Its the line that runs from the drier back to the TEV valve on the evap. See pics. I was gonna get a coat of black appliance epoxy on the frame but thatll wait till tomorrow. BTW... The AC muffler still lines up with the inner fender bracket and the foam insulator is good. I cleaned it with a wire toothbrush, combing it in one direction. Looks almost new. Bill in TR
TPP sells that line, but it's a bit different. I'm loading slow tonite, I think yesterday I don't remember seeing the bracket under the POA to hold the htr hoses. Look at the old 71 GS455 vert on ebay to see how that line off the TXV is angled. That one looks a bit much, but it has to be about like that to fit well. Don't worry about the oil, you can inject it later. Has to be other people here that know way more AC than I.
To answer the question about what you think is a fusible link, it is, sort of. If your compressor gets low on refrigerant, that fuse will pop. In fact, when you go to charge the system, you can bypass that fuse with a cotter pin to keep the fuse from blowing. That's how I did it back in the day. Don't leave it in too long, just to charge it.
It is called a thermal limiter, and like Steve said, it's like a fuse. They are cheap, when the charge is low they blow. 70's didn't have that and did not have a superheat switch. I THINK you need to jump it when you charge, like Steve said. I would put a new one in after it's charged. Here are some, I don't know if these are right for your car or not http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-Of-Two-...Parts_Accessories&hash=item4d23231f27&vxp=mtr
Thanks guys... I don't remember any of my 70s or 71s having this part and this is really the only 72 Ive owned. Had one that I got taken on... Looked good, but started pulling trim off and there was MORE bondo than steel on it! Kinda weird tho... yer ears would still pop when you slammed the door shut! No great loss; it was about $1500 in 1992. GS 350 Bill in TR
DANG... got sub arctic up here over night!! Spent yesterday making some Model T suspension parts for a pal from Manitowoc and then painted the forward frame rails today. probably gonna take 2-3 days to dry... plenty else to do meanwhile! Bill in TR Getting closer and closer to the core support part... stay tuned!
Today that cold paint was still flowing LOL... but it sure is shiny! Went to the steel supply shop today and picked up a 12" x 48" piece of 20 ga. carbon sheet steel. It was only $5.00 and $8.00 to cut it. Hmmm. Could have bought the 4x8 sheet for $35.00 but then Id hafta store it. Probably gonna hit harbor FRIGHT tomorrow for a single use brake to start making the core support panels I need. It really cant be any worse than the tool box I made in shop in high school. Got a full bottle of 75/25 for the MIG AND I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night. Oh, I can also read a ruler with the best of them LOL... Also picked up one of two AC fittings for that job. Other piece and the hose will be in next Tuesday. Ill fit it and then have it crimped at the motor parts. The lousy TXV fitting was $3.50; DAMN. Speaking of which, I think the TXV got smacked by the PO pulling the motor out. Got a slight bugar on the male thread. Any guesses what the threads size is? Like in as will a 5/8 NF die work for that?? Id hate to buy a $25 die nut for a one time use. All input strongly encouraged! That TXV valve lists around $75 but Rock Auto has it for $18 plus the ride.... Bill in TR The bad side is the small HP inlet tube to the left...
I don't know the size of that fitting, but here are some things to think about. The heater hoses should both go over that mangled TXV line, and that metal tab at the end of the "confounded" tubing with the hole should have a brkt to hold them. I think the tubing was added, that harness was taped. The hole to the left of your finger is for a harness strap to hold the harness. Behind the TXV, at the seam of the box, there is a boss you can barely see in the pic. That boss had a clamp that held the TXV. The clamp is a REALLY good thing, if you ever need to mess w/ the TXV, because it helps hold it straight while you mess w/ the evaporator line. Finally...thanks for the finger Bill, it's a great way for us to start the New Year!
Yeah Frank... fingers are a good thing; still have all 12 LOL. Theres actually 3 more holes for clamps on the POA bracket. Notice the front one; that's a home made one insulated with a piece of inner tube. Theres one "after" the POA valve, one for POA to Compressor line with the heater lines all in place, then the cable bracket mount one mentioned, the TVX mount mentioned and one more (theres two) on the engine side of the fiberglass plenum for more cable routing. The TVX brackets gonna need a slight twist as you can see the line off the evap is also bend a bit. Im not so sure I want to try and straighten that one as its a pretty good strain on the joint on the evap itself. Aluminum is funny stuff and doesn't need any forcing into position, ya know? At least Im good at making OEM looking brackets; even passes the judges eyes Hahaha. Bill in TR
Man is it cold up here, and its only +10F... gonna be -15F before all is said and done with a 25 mph breeze and drifting snow. Still got to work in the shop in a T shirt tho... up here we laugh at the weather haha. Looked at making brackets, and between this and that ended up opening the system and completely re-O ringing it (had the kit), re-assembled it and made up the TVX bracket, clamped the wire loom where it belongs, straightened the HP line from the TVX into the evaporator, and made a hanger for the LP return hose lined with a piece of inner tube, and all painted nice. Cleaned and painted a few assorted sundries, and by then it was 1500hrs and I needed to get the snow blower going before it got cold AND dark LOL... Bill in TR And, a belated Kwanzahh present for my own bad self... a sheet metal brake from Harbor Freight. This is for the core support repair job; also picked up 2 spot weld cutters ($4.00 ea.). Should be an interesting foray into madness...
