1973 220D A/C

[hs_300e]

What would it take to install A/C into a 1973 220D that did not come with factory A/C?

What would the approximate associated costs be and will it be worth it?

Thanks for your responses.

HS

[dieseldiehard]

If you can find an old add-on AC (aftermarket like FrigiKing) you would be well equipped to make a reasonable AC. Otherwise I can't imagine installing the evaporator box and all and making it factory air. Unless of course you had a donor car and liked to pull things apart. To do this you remove the dash, that means pulling the front window out. Just that is about $300 including gasket and reinstallation, no A/C parts. I would use a Japanese compressor, not the old York, there's brackets available to use this on the W115 chassis. Finding all that is another story.
Honestly, this may cost you $2500 or more.

[Pooka]

This would be a doable project, but that is what it would be...a project. I used to install aftermarket A/C systems in four hours, but that was in a shop that was all set up and what not. It was also in 1968, so I am a bit rusty at it to say the least.

You would likely be best off buying a parts car with an a/c system so you could slowly do a part by part transplant. You could keep the York compressor for the transplant, just never use it. After everything was done ditch it and go with a modern compressor. Get a new dryer, the cylinder with the sight glass on top, as well.

You can pull the dash without removing the front glass, just don't jack up the car with the dash out of the car or the glass will likely break. Putting the dash back in and lining it back up is time consuming, as it taking it out, but it can be done.

You would also need new hoses, but they are easy to find at any auto a/c supply house.

You would also need the pully wheel from the crank since there will be an additional belt for the a/c.

This could turn into a web page of it's own, but then you have all winter to do it. If you decide to take this on then let us know and hopefully folks in the D/FW area will keep their eyes peeled for a parts car for you. Any 114 or 115 ought to work and there is bound to be a rusted out one show up at one time or another.

And don't worry about running it on R-134 either. Installing a new ezpansion valve will take care of that and the people at any a/c supply house can help you with that. You would be suprised at how much intrest they take in projects such as this.

But get some more opinions on this before you dive into it. This would be a project and not a weekend wenching thing.

[JimFreeh]

Years ago, when I was running a couple of 220Ds, I pulled two A/C systems for spares so I'd have the parts if I ever needed them. Still have most of the stuff in the trunk of one of the 250C parts cars....

The evaporator isn't impossible, just requires the requisite dash removal, which is a lot of time.

Rest of the system is pretty basic, and easily swapped over.

I believe I'd make sure that the defroster fan is rebuilt before I reinstalled anything, though. A/C blower is a separate unit.

One other quirk: The early A/C systems had a manual switchover lever, whilst the later systems used a vacuum switch.

Jim