Are you sure your fan clutch is working properly? I'd think the car shouldn't overheat at idle if the pusher fan was dead, but that the AC would just blow warmer.

My car's temp is rock solid at idle with the AC on and a new belt fan / clutch, but I also have dual pusher fans...

-J

Its not necessarily overheating... I've owned half a dozen of these cars and they all did the same thing. If it goes above 110* then something's not right.

Fair enough. Still worth checking the fan clutch... though it seems like the ones on the 617 fail a lot less frequently then the 603.

-J

The fan and fan clutch work fine. It spins normally with the engine, no problem there. It puts out a lot of wind! I was just wondering if the aux fan was supposed to come on or not.

If normal operation is 110*ish then it's operating normally.
I'll try to push it a little and see if it'll go higher, but I don't think it will. My coolant was topped off today as well, so that's not a problem either.

The aux fan should come on based on refrigerant temp, not coolant temp. One of the two switches on the receiver dryer triggers it.. I believe it is the one with the wires coming right out of it, not the one with the spade connectors. EDIT: see below.

After taking this photo I started Norm, half way leveled off, and drove 20 minutes. I'd guess it was a mid 70s day....:D If it was going to overheat, this would have done it. I suppose that was a while ago, though.

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/IMG_0083.jpg

Sitting in the car now and the aux fan came on. All is right in the world :)

The aux fan is triggered by the Refrigerant Temperature Sensor, which screws into the drier and has two wires and spade connectors attached. The other sensor attached to the drier is the Hi/Low switch, which breaks the circuit when refrigerant pressures get too high (or low).

You don't have to discharge the system to change the temp. sensor, as it just threads into the drier housing. The pressure switch with the oring and two spade connectors sticking out is the one that needs discharging to change out.

I broke the temperature sensor while redoing my A/C two years ago. While I waited for a new one, I jumped the aux fan connections so the fan was always on in city driving. :o

Congrats on the working Evil Climate Control™!

Thanks for the correction on the temp switch... that's good to know.

-Jason

GOOD NEWS !
 

It's good it's working , this picture is killing me with jealously ! my TD will never look that nice .

Time to dig this thread up again, but don't worry everything is working fine :D

Well when I rebuilt the system I used 134 to recharge it, mostly because I didn't want to spend a ton of money on R12 and then discover a leak in the system I didn't know about. Well the 134 works, but not very well. It really isn't all that cold during warm days (like 60 out the vents).

Now that I know my system works fine, I want to put R12 in it (or freeze12, envirosafe, whatever) but am not sure how exactly I'd go about this. I know I would have to replace the dryer, but would I have to replace the expansion valve as well? Also would I have to flush the system and compressor again, or would just replacing the dryer and expansion valve, vaccing the system, and charging work?

Essentially my question is what to I do to convert back to R12 from R134?

Headache
 

You goofed ~ this is why you evacuate the system then let it sit a few hours with vacuum ,to see if it has a slow leak .

To change it back to R-12 , you must needs open the sysem again and flush it completely , replace the reciever-dryer & oil but *not* the expansion valve then you must needs evacuate it and test again before putting R-12 in .

If it gives you 60° F at the vents now , that's as good as it'll ever get , leave it alone .

I didn't goof, I wasn't even sure that doing all of this was going to bring my system back to working order. It also ended up needing a replacement servo to see that the system operated properly.

It can get better then 60*, and honestly that isn't a whole lot of work to do so I'll go ahead and do it.

You Goofed
 

No way 'round that .

I also went down this particular road ,prolly much further than you did as I had to replace not only the Evil Klima I Servo and it's amplifier but also the auxiliary water pump , the entire vacuum hose harness from Servo to under the dashboard , electrical harness bits , the heater pipe matrix along the right side , freeze plugs , water nipples on the engine and on and on.....

If you fix it , it will work . simple as that . no need to ' test ' by using a refrigerant you don't like . the servo doesn't affect the refrigerant in any case .

When the car was new the AC didn't cool below 60° F so I'm not sure why you think it should or can do so now .

The rule of thumb in AC is : 30° F drop in temperature between outside and inside vent temp .

My Klima I HVAC will provide 65° F outlet temp. in Death Valley when it's 120° F outside for what that's worth .

I hope you knew what you were talking about because I'm a little lost.
Colin didn't have a leak, he just isn't happy with his freon choice......
R12 will give you the very best Colin. Freeze12 a close second from my experience. Envirosafe another level down, then R134a way down at the bottom.