I will be installing an A/C system in my '73 and was hunting for a good place to mount the compressor (not too many available on these cars <_< ). There is a flat bossed area on the passenger side of the fan housing that looks to be about the stoutest part of the assembly, does anything important/necessary mount in this area or am I in luck.

Mounting for the ac compressor <_<

Are you shitting me? I thought it was a real 'butcher' job installing an A/C (not that I've ever seen an installed A/C in a 914). This is too easy!

Do you have the parts from 914, or are you starting from scratch?

Starting from scratch...sort of. I'm using the pulley assembly from a smog pump that has the flange (weak point) removed. I did all of the measuring and CAD work so a friend with a metal lathe can make an adapter to mount the pulley directly to the fan. This should take a lot of the load off of the shaft and bearings (well, at least it looks good on paper )

Front view:

Fan side:

Why not use the parts from the dealer options?

Well...the dealer parts are as rare as frog hair, and just about as useless. I can't imagine having to pull the engine to change an A/C belt. It must have been 4:00pm Friday when the engineers at VW/Porsche came up with the idea of putting the pulley 'behind' the fan

Plus the fact I can make the 'adapter' for about $10, and already have a Sanden 508 compressor, modified smog pulley assy., and all of the necessary components for cold air in the cockpit

Where ya gonna put the condenser?

The dealer parts ain't that rare. I've got 3 complete sets collecting dust.

Okay, this is going to sound ridiculous but... I've got two small condenser coils (Audi) that are going to be mounted in each rear fender well (they're flared, lots of room), ducted up and around the rear tires from X-1/9 side scoops mounted in the rocker panels, there's also two (one on each side) 250 cfm waterproof bilge blowers (4" thermistor controlled) to suck air across the coils when I'm sitting still (rush hour)....Okay, stop laughing

I'm pretty handy with composites, so the ducting won't be much of a problem, in fact the lower half of the duct (removable) will double as the rear wheel well liners. The part I'm still working on is mounting the evaporator in the engine compartment (high and on the firewall) and blowing the conditioned air through the existing heat ducts (return-air low on the firewall). I've got a bunch of aluminized fiberglass from a guy on ebay (the unofficial materials supplier of this project ) that's highly heat reflective and should make for a super quiet/cool passenger compartment when completed......Now that you know my evil plan, you must die LOL!!

Well, I didn't laugh too hard . Sounds like it could work. how will you control the air flow between heater and ac?

Have you ever seen those exhaust diverters that they sell in JC Whitney? Well the plan is to use those, or a close facsimile, controlled by the heater flapper valves. When you pull for heat it closes the A/C flappers, and vice versa. The ones in JC are cast iron, so I was hoping to find something similar used in light aircraft....still looking

A company called Wag -Aero might have what you are looking for. I used a bunch of their stuff for a new aircraft heating system. I can dig further if you need it.

Thanks for the tip F4i! I ordered a catalog to see what I can use.

Kevin,

The dealer or aftermarket A/C installs normally butchered the engine shelf on the pass side as well as the front trunk floor. My 914 had A/C....one of these days I'd like to install it again, but I wouldn't keep or use a single item from the original installation.

Since you're install is starting from scratch, I don't see why you are getting all excited or even care too much of what the bosses are for since you are free to use whatever you want

A bracket or two from an original setup might come in handy, but in my opinion, everything is too heavy and too crude looking. You might also want a catalog from a comany I think is called Vintage Air.

Thanks Mike, I'll check out Vintage Air...

My only concern with the bossed area was that it would be strong enough to mount a compressor to, and since that's what it was for in the first place , it was a big relief.

Anyone have a pic of the "stock" placement of the York compressor? Or the compressor mounting bracket to be more precise. It might come in handy down the road.



Kevin

Vintage Air...consider it bookmarked!

I don't have time right now, but I have a complete A/C unit in a box that I could take pictures of so that you can get a general idea of the placement, I also have (or had) copies of the original installation instructions for both A/C brands...I'll see if I can find them.

The part that you would probably use is the interior console for the vents...the rest of the stuff is pure crap.

Vintage air makes retro cooling stuff for old cars that never even heard of a/c...nice stuff....pricey, but nice.

Thanks Mike(s)

Mr. Mueller - If you could find those instructions that would be VERY helpful, please PM me if you find them.

Mr. Z - The console I had planned on using was an aftermarket console (Sears & Roebuck no less) for early '70's Pontiac's according to the seller. It's fairly slim (about 5.5", 10" deep and 18+" wide), it's in excellent condition and has a blower you could style your hair with (bad ass). I was (and still might) going to use it as it is, but thought I'd try and use its internals to make the "engine compartment mounted" evap. just to save some precious room for the legs.

It's shown sitting atop the '75 Porsche parts storage container

Pardon the POS digital camera pics

sideview

Here's some AC picture I had.

Another

Uno Mas

Thanks for the excellent pics Mark, so that's how the orig. a/c was mounted...I suppose they work just fine, but what a crappy design (must have been meeting some coworkers at the pub for a few 'Biers', and couldn't leave until the design was done )...Did they figure that the belt would last forever?

Kevin

This just in...

912E AC compressor mounting pics

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