Made some good progress on the van over the last few days! Nearly have working AC in the van now.
Started by marking up and cutting out the bulkhead to fit the AC plate.
Worked nicely I think, and the AC heater/control box in the cab fits nicely through the bulkhead.
Then got the new belt fitted, which I measured out to be 1215mm. And this was perfect! Only just long enough to get it over the pulleys, leaving me more than enough space on the "manual" tensioner pulley to get the belt tight.
Shit bit is this is when I realised the compressor was wrong. I thought the fact it was an 8 rib pulley on the compressor wouldn't be a problem with my 6 rib belt. But with this and the fact the alt pulley is slightly wonky due to the mount, the belt wanted to jump off on startup. This resulted in me mounting an old Seat Leon cam sprocket on the tensioner as a makeshift barrier to stop it jumping off. Worked-ish, and I only lost one rib, but meant I could get it up to the local indie for the pre-mot.
But i realised I needed to get a new compressor as the hose connectors on the compressor are the screw type, and the proper VW AC hoses are a compression flange type fitting. Got a new compressor turning up in a couple of days.
Pre-mot looks good. Small patch on the inner sill behind the exhaust shield needs welding. And outer cv boot has a pinhole in. Easy stuff.
Back to the AC. Then decided to tackle the electrics. Which was pleasantly easy.
Didn't look it to start off with, with this rats nest of cables.
But i just took back the existing heating loom, and unplugged cables, and plugged in the new cables as I went along.
Did the same with the fuse box. Removed connectors, untangled them, and plugged them back in neatly. Looks much better now.
Then fitted the new coolant pipes and rad with the condenser rad included.
Pretty easy again. Just needed to install this extra sensor inline in my existing coolant pipework.
Everything is in now and the whole heating/cooling system works. Much better than the old busted unit I had in.
Next steps are to fit the new compressor, fit a new belt, connect the AC hoses. Fit new receiver drier unit. Then gas up the system, and see if I get sweet sweet cool air.
Sent from my SM-N986B using Just T4s
Started by marking up and cutting out the bulkhead to fit the AC plate.
Worked nicely I think, and the AC heater/control box in the cab fits nicely through the bulkhead.
Then got the new belt fitted, which I measured out to be 1215mm. And this was perfect! Only just long enough to get it over the pulleys, leaving me more than enough space on the "manual" tensioner pulley to get the belt tight.
Shit bit is this is when I realised the compressor was wrong. I thought the fact it was an 8 rib pulley on the compressor wouldn't be a problem with my 6 rib belt. But with this and the fact the alt pulley is slightly wonky due to the mount, the belt wanted to jump off on startup. This resulted in me mounting an old Seat Leon cam sprocket on the tensioner as a makeshift barrier to stop it jumping off. Worked-ish, and I only lost one rib, but meant I could get it up to the local indie for the pre-mot.
But i realised I needed to get a new compressor as the hose connectors on the compressor are the screw type, and the proper VW AC hoses are a compression flange type fitting. Got a new compressor turning up in a couple of days.
Pre-mot looks good. Small patch on the inner sill behind the exhaust shield needs welding. And outer cv boot has a pinhole in. Easy stuff.
Back to the AC. Then decided to tackle the electrics. Which was pleasantly easy.
Didn't look it to start off with, with this rats nest of cables.
But i just took back the existing heating loom, and unplugged cables, and plugged in the new cables as I went along.
Did the same with the fuse box. Removed connectors, untangled them, and plugged them back in neatly. Looks much better now.
Then fitted the new coolant pipes and rad with the condenser rad included.
Pretty easy again. Just needed to install this extra sensor inline in my existing coolant pipework.
Everything is in now and the whole heating/cooling system works. Much better than the old busted unit I had in.
Next steps are to fit the new compressor, fit a new belt, connect the AC hoses. Fit new receiver drier unit. Then gas up the system, and see if I get sweet sweet cool air.
Sent from my SM-N986B using Just T4s
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