I took out the "marginally cooling at best" Old Air unit out from my '72 and installed the Air-Tique "King Kool" unit. The following site will show some pics I snapped.
Air-Tique Install Pics
It stuffed in pretty well. it is considerably larger that the previous unit so it took some engineering to get it in. It is a vacuum controlled unit (doors & valve) so instead of going with the controls they supplied I opted to "customize" my own. I got a set of controls from an '87 Chrysler New Yorker (many mid-'80's cars had these and are very abundant in the yards) and adapted them to my need. I "piggybacked" the thermostat onto the temp lever so that it is controlled by just one lever and not a separate one like the add-on PITA systems. A little work on the CNC yielded me the aluminum plate to mount into the dash and some custom pneumatic valve adaptation made all of the doors function as expected. I took a vacuum reservoir & check valve from a Ford truck and a normally-closed vacuum switch from a Toyota Supra smog device (many Toy's have the same) and the system functions like a breeze (no pun intended!) The cable that was employed on the Chrysler system for the blend door is now bent at a nice sweeping ninety-degree angle to the right so it can pass through the
firewall and operate the temperature control valve for my heater. The vacuum valve to the line is operated just like a factory setup when the temp lever is moved to the "warm" section and now the cable-operated valve "trims" the amount of flow into the core for a very controlled amount of warmth. The
A/C button cancels out the water flow by virtue of the Toyota vacuum switch for a more positive "insurance" that absolutely no water is flowing through the heater core. Another plus is when the "def" is used, it acts like a factory system so that the compressor kicks on and helps with de-humidification for quick window de-fogging. It was pretty cool temperature-wise when I charged the system back up but I am confident it will perform much better than the Old Air did. I stopped @ 27 ozs because my pressures looked copacetic with the 65 degree ambient. When we get another good 80+ day here shortly (maybe even tomorrow) I will "snuff it up".
Any of you who have a little time on their hands and the mechanical "savvy" I would suggest using one of these units. They are not "custom fit" but do need a little massaging to get them in. But in comparison, the evaporator coils are considerably larger than "the other guys'" who put the "custom" units together for our drop-in applications and the "King Kool" should perform better when put to the test. These folks are a great bunch of Texans to deal with (aren't they all?)
Air-Tiqueand the owner, Harold Gentry who I dealt with, is very knowledgeable and a pleasure to converse with over the phone. He will answer any and all questions to the best of his ability and will make sure that you get everything that you need.
Enjoy!
11-08-2003, 02:56 PM
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