A/C in 70 Javelin

White70JavelinSST wrote: It Works, got the system charged with some help and it worked correctly right away. Blows 55 degrees out of the ducts at 700 rpm idle. Put in 2-1/4 lbs. of R134A. Remember the car has the original evap coil and a NOS condenser from a 74 Javelin. The air temps today reached 85 degrees with 70% humidity. I had the air blowing on me during a 20 minute cruise, I got chilly. Thanks everyone for all the help. Armand

The early 80s were transition years. Most around 1980 have the newer style "barrier" hoses, but some don't. Supposedly R-134a has smaller molecules and will eventually seep out of the hoses if they aren't barrier type, but many do the conversion with no issues. I think the compressor oil might saturate the hoses and make them less likely to seep refrigerant. Whatever the case, many don't experience a problem, or at least not enough to be an issue. If it takes more than three years to lose enough refrigerant to make a difference who cares?

The WhiteJavelin has the factory evap coil with fabricated brass and copper O-ring ends brazed in place of the flare fittings. The condenser is a NOS 74 Javelin part. The expansion valve is an O-ring version. I purchased aluminum tubes from various A?C suppliers like Vintage Air and fabricated tubes to replace as much of the rubber hose as possible with hard lines. Then I purchased stainless braided hoses and fittings from Vintage Air and made up the part that needs to be flexible. The Compressor is a Chinese knock off of a Sanden. When I was buying it I did not understand that "Sanden style" meant knock off. The underdash stuff is all rebuilt 70 Javelin. The controls are factory. The dryer is an aftermarket unit. I had to modify a few things, to make it all function together.
here's a pic of the evap with the O-ring fittings brazed on. I purged the joints with Argon while brazing because that's what I had in the shop.

About 7 years ago I purchased a rusty 70 Javelin, in fact we named the car ole rusty, it had a complete unmolested A/C setup.

The condenser coil was shot, and didn't have O-ring fittings so it was out immediately.

The original dryer cost more to rebuild than a universal one and wouldn't fit the 74 condenser anyway. I thought I had found a 74 NOS drier but it turned out it's for a Ford something.

Oh yeah the evap coil fins were pretty crooked by the time I got done modding it, so I spent an hour or so very carefully straightening all of them.

The stainless braided hose is very easy to work with, yeah it's expensive, but pretty much totally failure proof and it looks really good.

I didn't cover all the the liquid line, under the dash, with insulation. After the first cruise using the A/C, I noticed a bit of moisture dripping from the about two inch exposed length of tubing. I'll have to stand on my head i there and get some insul on it. You know that black stuff with cork in it.

Unclejohn,

Thanks for your praise.

I also have one of those factory Sanden mount brackets. It's from an 85 FSJ. For some reason I want to say it didn't fit on the 70 engine because the later heads have an additional mounting threaded hole that the 70's do not have. But then I thought I looked at all that the second time and didn't find the extra mounting hole on the bracket. I hate confusion.

That is in fact the OEM drive belt and it does have the back side idler wheel with a new sealed bearing, which was easy to replace. There is enough slack in that belt that I could raise the compressor up using spacers between the bracket and adaptor to provide more clearance at the engine head, (it is tight) but then it gets the pulley on the compressor closer to the radiator hose, sigh, another dilemma.....

The entire project was a huge learning experience for me, but sure was rewarding when completed, especially the fact that only two things were outsourced, machining a male and female O-ring adaptors for the evap coil and the charging of the system.


Edited by White70JavelinSST - Sep/07/2015 at 4:04pm