Hi all,
I'm wondering if someone could please tell me how realisi\tic I am being in hoping to fit a second hand air conditioning unit to my 1972 144. I am in Perth, Australia and summers are a bit warm without one. I was thinking I may be able to get one from a wreckers and fit it myself. Any advice or comments would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I have seen Smiths underdash unit's installed in early cars here in Aus. You should be able to find one at a wreckers with a bit of luck. If you do install one, make sure you use a new rotary compressor as the old piston compressors eat horsepower & fuel.

Cheers,
Paul.

Hi there,
A/C were available on older Volvos as a dealer option. Mine is a 74 and I installed it at the dealer 1 year after I got the car. Well, mine came with the switches and vents as well as the blower, so all that was missing it the compressor and the plumbing. You could find a 164 in the salvage yard with an underdash blower or there were many aftermarket a/c with the underdash blower available around at that time. My 78 Mazda had an aftermarket a/c with the underdash blower.
Might I suggest something here. After 30 years, my York compressor quit, as it has been in continuous use (its summer all year round in Malaysia!). I had it replaced with a Sanden rotary unit....to tell you the truth, it was much lighter compressor than the York. It works well, and all it needed was a slight modification to the mounting bracket. A good welding shop should be able to to this at a relatively low cost, at least here in Malaysia. I have also installed an auxilliary push fan on the a/c condensor in front of the car and this helps the a/c to maintain its cooling ability even in bad traffic jams.
Good luck with your installation. I hope that you will be driving "cool" soon.

Dave

Hi

When in the wrecker have a look a the same year 164 for air con units. My father 71 164 has a aftermarket underdash unit. The pre 73 164 in the wrecker I have seen have the same type units I don't think the factory unit are common in OZ

George

Cars I own

Restoration project
Personal import 1974 144gl B20a M40

Everyday car
1989 740 turbo B230ft/AW71

Cars I have owned
1982 244GL B23e/M45
1986 760GLE B28f/AW71

I've also thought about it, but not since I've mooved from the warm Cape Town South Africa to the cool Auckland New Zealand. But Perth is definately a different story.

You know you can get the full OEM parts catalogue off the internet? It took me a long time to download, but was worth it. It's at www.gcp.se and with a bit a playing around you will find the easy format of the URL. You download it as GIF files page for page, and that's why it takes so long. I do not see it as bridging copyright, as the pages are unprotected on the internet and only saves me from dialing up to view it. It's a different story if you try to sell it or use it in a shop to repair other people's cars. Where it does help a lot is in showing a garage how things fit together before they start a job, like next week when all the suspension bushes are being replaced on my car. And as I supplied the parts, they now know where what goes.

I can send it to you on CD, if you reply with your e-mail. Obviously I will not do it for everyone in the forum, so in return just ask that you then pass it on to the next person. I'm guessing there will be a few replies...

The catalogue I've got is for the pre-73 model, which has the sliding ribbon speedometer. It includes details about power steering and other options, as well as which parts were fitted to which market models (according to chasis number).

Have fun...

140 series A/C was a dealer-installed option; if they could do it, so can you.
Brackets for the York/Tecumseh 2 piston compressor should be available at the wreckers(they are in the US), and I beleive somebody makes a bracket for a more modern rotary.
--
Jim McDonald