a guy shows up at the hillbilly garage with a 54 gmc farm truck, 2 ton, plenty sharp, with a 302 in it. and a box of junk he bought at swap meets, flea markets, whatever. he has a NEW crank pulley, and the alternator (yep, 12 v. neg. ground) has a 2 belt pulley on it, along with a NEW water pump 2 belt pulley. those pulleys i have never seen before. the guy tells me they were bought at a swap meet a few months ago, and the seller promised the pulleys would fit the 302. went on like factory. i had to fab up (modify) a bracket that fit a sanden compressor, that had good lines on it, and (thank God) standard fittings. new drier, and an old r-12 underdash unit from who knows what, but plenty big evaporator. i suspect the underdash unit was made for a bigger car. lot's of crawling around, but got everything to fit, and the entire install was pretty slick when done. i did consider using r- 134, but after talking it over with the owner we decided on r-406a. air temp out of the vents was 39 degrees. that's cold enough to stiffen the nipples to the point you could cut glass with 'em. for a totally uninsulated cab, and on a near 90 degree day, the cab was like being in a walk in cooler. condensation on the side glass.
this old truck still works., and has been modernized over the years. the 302 has been reworked, and is a pretty strong horse. when the compressor kicks in, the engine doen't even seem to feel it. oh yeah, i don't have a clue what the used evaporator came off of, but i think it's for a 134 system judging by the tube size.
total cost the owner has in the system, not including my labor, supplies, etc.? 80 bucks.
time on the install? about 6 hours total, staying right with it with only a couple of pepsi breaks.
the point? with some knowledge and looking around, you can do about anything you set your mind to. anything.
sure wish i knew who made those pulleys!
A WORD OF WARNING WHEN SCROUNGING OR SHOPPING SWAP MEETS. ASK WHAT THE FITTINGS/ UNIT CAME OFF OF. SOME JAP STUFF HAVE METRIC FITTINGS AND THOSE FITTINGS ARE SOMTIMES DIFFICULT TO FIND. USUALLY HAVE TO BE ORDERED, SO PREPARE TO SPEND AN EXTRA DAY OR TWO WAITING FOR PARTS!
i do recommend the sanden compressor to anything american. compact size and more reliable (hate to say it, but i think true.). later model g.m. rotarys have a little problem with o- ring failure on the main housing, and cryslers have a maniflod setup on the top of the compressor and (stupid idea) steel lines. ford rotary seems to hold up pretty well long term, but with a pretty good size pulley, clutch setup. old g.m. rotary? forget it.
