And probably had 3 to 4 lbs of freon vs the 20-28 ounces nowadays.
How Does A/C work on a Carb vehicle?
- Thread starter redhat
- Start date
Great cars, those late 80s Accords. Built to exacting standards.
Back in the late 80s, my dad’s parents, who had always been MOPAR people (Papa worked at Chrysler dealerships all his life except when fighting in WWII and Korea, starting as a helper in the body shop of a Chrysler dealership in Haleyville, AL., and eventually working his way up to service manager, before going to work in sales for the old Sun Electronics Co. that made diagnostic equipment), grew tired of crappy build quality and bad QC on Chrysler vehicles and bought a couple of Japanese cars - an ‘87 Camry wagon, and then, later, a ‘90 Accord. As a kid whose parents always had American cars (‘80 Malibu, ‘85 Plymouth Voyager), the level of refinement of those Japanese cars was amazing and fascinating. They absolutely obliterated anything from the Big 3 in terms of build quality and refinement, and I absolutely loved the FIRM seats that actually SUPPORTED your body, instead of the soft, cushy, fluffy, unsupportive excuses for seats of American cars of the time.
Getting to ride in Grandma & Papa’s Camrys and Accords and Nissan “SE-V6” hardbody pickup made me a fan of Japanese automobiles for life, and made me aspire to buy some of my own, which, later, I did (2004 Accord EX-L 5-speed, 2007 Tacoma, 2016 WRX, 2021 4Runner).
Well, I kinda went on a tangent there, didn’t I?
What I came here to say is that the R12 refrigerant in those older cars blew literal ICE COLD A/C!
GM did as well during the '84 model year (at least some car lines). The hoses that were "Goodyear Galaxy" were barrier hoses. My early '84 did not have them. The crimps were greatly improved as well.
Or there was a solenoid valve that applied vacuum to a diaphragm that " lightly bumped up the idle." That's what my Mazda had (or would've, if it had had air conditioning). They used the same device for both that purpose and to open the throttle slightly when coasting above certain engine speed when coasting for emissions reasons.
My 1984 Cavalier has non-barrier hoses. I have read that you cannot or should not use fittings designed for non-barrier hose with barrier hose because the barbs will damage the nylon liner in the barrier hose.
That would not surprise me, as the old fittings (50s-60s GM) with A/C gear clamps are not recommended with R134a either.
The fittings and crimps were completely different from the original (10/83 build) on the GM (Goodyear Galaxy) hose set for my '84 Caprice.
Attachments
Those always leaked!
Great, what can I replace them with?
Barrier hoses with the correct crimps
Won't the barbs designed for regular non-barrier hose damage the inner liner? Which means I need to replace the fittings too.
The two cars with the absolutely coldest AC that I ever owned, were a '59 DeSoto and a '93 Sentra SE-R. Both R12, of course. I don't know that the DeSoto had any sort of idle kick up device. That had the good old 2-cylinder RV-2 compressor. It likely sapped a bit of power to run.
You cut off the old barbs & weld on new barbs made for barrier hose. If you're building a system from scratch.....You can usually buy fittings & manifolds made with barrier hose barbs/crimps.
Makes sense. My mechanical injection diesel had a cpu controled air pump that was in turn "sucking" on a small bladder which was pulling a lever on the injection pump to bump up the idle when cold and AC on, and also a sensor to disengage the AC compressor at WOT (well, pump lever maxed out) in some temperature conditions. Timing was controled by yet another solenoid on the pump.
Realistically that mostly worked, as the control unit knew the position of the pump lever, AC status and idle speed. The engine was very agricultural and not really disturbed by AC engaged or not.
I don't know how a more mechanical system, not cpu controlled would work in the long run, with a carburettor setup, as I never had a carb car with AC.
Speaking of refrigerant, how much is a pound of R-12 today?...... And it still has to be "available" if cocaine and Fentanyl are.
I have an unopened 30lb cylinder of R12 in my basement.
Someone can. I can't. The closest place I found that does work like that is all the way in Richmond, VA, a good 90 miles away. On the other hand, if I want to go bribe a congressman, that's only a 20 mile drive.
No AC hoses are listed as replacements for this car anywhere I've looked, as far as I can tell none were ever available, and GM's solution for hose replacement was to cut the crimp off and use hose clamps with a new hose.
Doesn't seem to. I've been making ac hoses for decades that way. That's how the supplier set me up.
