1969 Camaro - looking for advice

[lannie]

I have 1969 camaro, originally an AC car. BTW, a very clean well restored camaro. When I bought the camaro, the ac compressor was in a box in the trunk alone with a lot of other original parts. The compressor was seal and looks new on the outside.

The guy I bought the car lived in Northern US were AC was not needed. Doing the restoration on the camaro, the AC compressor was removed and stored in a box.

The camaro is in Louisiana now, hot and humid were AC is needed.

First of all I have limited knowledge in air conditioning. And I'm very caution on who I allow to touch my camaro. The younger generation service shops has no clue how to work on these old cars.

Let me first summarize what was done on my camaro.
The compressor was re-installed back to what appears to be factory equipment of 1969. Since I could not find anyone to help me with R1, I gave up and took advice from a local autozone (most likely a mistake on my part ) to convert to r134a. So I did the loaner vacuum deal, pulled a vacuum and added the premixed r134a/oil.

I followed the instructions and got "some" cold air from the vent. Maybe 2-3 def drop. After a few days trying, I thought a had a leak and gave up.

Fast forward a year now: now its hot again and my wife wants the AC fixed.

So I did some more research, before I found this website. I found a local (older AC guy) selling some R12. I called him and he offered to help me.

When he put his gauges on my camaro, the camaro still had a r134a nd it was still fully charged. Back a year ago, I just gave up and never ran the AC. He said I had too much freon, he lowered to pressure and we still had the same results as a year ago, 2-3 deg out the vents.

The local guy recommended the following:
Buy new expansion valve, POA and R12 oil, evac the exiting R134a, flush the complete system, install new expansion valve and POA, add R12 oil, and charge with R12. His thoughts was to put new parts to eliminate having to recharge if the expansion valve or POA were bad. He has a point, it could be original equipment from 1969 and not been used for who knows how long.

I searched for a new POA and found this site.

My question:
If this were your $50K plus camaro, what would you do? I would like to go keep the R12 system if possible.

Thanks in advance

[Tim]

See if the top and bottom lines coming out of the evap case are the same temp.

[lannie]

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you want me to measure the temperature before with the system as is with the r134a freon? If so, do I need to bring it back to the AC guy that offered to help or is that something I can myself? If so ,I would need more details on what tools I need.

Can I use a Infrared Thermometer? Because I own have one. If you can send me a picture of the areas I need to measure, I can get that done.

David

[Dougflas]

How about you sending us a picture or two of your set up?

[lannie]

I can take some pictures this week.

[bohica2xo]

Your A/C guy sounds like a parts changer. With 50k invested in the car, the proper tools to do this yourself are a tiny investment.

If you have the correct compressor for a 1969 Camaro, it will be an A6. The A6 has an integral oil sump and gerotor pump for lubrication.

At this point you need to break the system down, and clean out whatever went in the 134a. The A6 oil sump has a drain plug. Once the system is empty, pull the drain plug & see what is in the sump.

If you are running the OEM tube & fin condenser, you will probably have less trouble running R12. If this is a hotrod, with aftermarket radiator etc, you can install a parallel flow condenser that is much more efficient - and run R134a. You will have to re-calibrate the POA valve for the 134a refrigerant too.

Once you decide on which refrigerant you want to run, you need o put the correct oil for that refrigerant in the system. Specifically in the sump on the compressor.

The POA valve can be bench tested before installation. I would replace the receiver dryer with a fresh unit - the dessicant in it can not be dried back out if it sat open for a long time. Older dryers were not compatible with 134a either.

[Promod]

I'm in the process of getting the factory a/c system going on a '69 Camaro as well. The first thing I would decide is how important is keeping the original components. If you're not worried about that then I would seiously consider going with some level of update to your system. After a minimal amount of screwing around with my original system I decided to go the update route. I've got a kit ordered from Classic Auto Air that updates everything under the hood.

If you decide to to work with your original components you'll just have to decide how thorough of a job you want to do when dealing with these 45+ year old parts. I would guess your main issue is either your expansion valve or your POA valve. At a minimum I would recommend testing those parts and replacing/repairing as needed, replace the receiver/drier and replace all the rubber hoses.

[mk378]

Do you remember what the pressures were when running?

R-134a will dissolve internal parts of very old driers which were not made for it. A 1969 drier is likely to be one of those that will blow its desiccant out when 134a goes through it. This will clog up the TXV and other parts. So yes the thing to do is take system apart and check for that problem as well as bench test the POA. Clean out the mystery oil that is in the 'death kit" conversion box and replace with mineral oil if you're going to use R-12 or POE or PAG for 134a. They don't make new POA valves so if it has a problem and you want to keep the car completely stock, you'll need to find an old one that still works.

[lannie]

Sorry it took so long to get pictures. I tried uploading pictures to this post and the files are too large. So I added a few pictures to local website

http://www.cajunmusclecars.com/1969-z28-camaro/

[bohica2xo]

Yep,that is an A6.

Hopefully there was some oil still in the sump, if it was the original compressor removed from he car. any remaining oil from 1969 would have been Mineral Oil.

Adding 134a with some oil is what we call a Death Kit. In the mid 1990's they started selling kits with a couple of cans of 134a, some oil & a couple of cheap fittings. Vague instructions. Adding 134a compatible oil to an R12 system with mineral oil and traces of r12 still present. The two oils don't mix. It works for a while, then the whole system needs to be replaced.

You will want to flush the mixed oils out of that compressor & bench test it. AFTER you recover the system to empty it, pull the compressor. Here is the flushing and testing process:

http://www.autoacforum.com/messageview. ... adid=12050

You really can fix this yourself.