I'm pretty familiar with the car as it has been in our family since new. I asked my mom about it (it was her car for 19 years) and she said it would always have the fan on to some degree / speed while in the normal A/C mode (definately not economy as it cools great).
For grins I called my parts guy and they are quoting over $200 for a rebulit unit (he thinks it comes with the thermostat wheel as well and I have to send back the core). I would really hate to make a $200+ "guess" and not solve the problem. Granted that the A/C is working - does this make sense?!
As people have stated before about these A/C systems - went they work, it works great, but it is complicated as hell...