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Vintage Air AC Install

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AlanMcR
Posts: 7729

Re: Vintage Air AC Install

Post#11 » Fri Aug 02, 2013 8:15 pm

bratwurst wrote:OK so last weekend my buddies went out on our long-planned camping trip, and I couldn't because my truck was stuck in the shop, getting a new tail section on the transmission. The truck has been off the road for 6 weeks now.

Rather than pout about it, I got back to work on the AC install (without a truck). I need to get the control panel going before the installation is completed at a local AC shop. If you've looked at the vintage air control panels, they are designed to blend in with muscle car and hot rod panels - not really what I want in my G.

So the plan is to hack apart a W202 climate control unit and use that to control the Vintage Air unit. I don't need to make a full climate control system - initially I am going to keep the software simple and focus on "manual" controls. I am using an Arduino as the microcontroller; it needs to drive 3 power lines for the blower, operate a servo for the heater valve and one for setting the vent positions, and it also needs at a minimum 1 temperature sensor to monitor the evaporator core for freezing. To support future "climate control" features I also will install a temperature sensor in the cabin and either outside the truck or in the cooling system (not sure which is more important yet).

This weekend, I got the difficult part done; driving the LCD. Making a "raw" LCD panel display anything useful is not as simple as connecting a couple of wires. To do this you need to create a bunch of waveforms and depending on the phasing between them, the LCD segments will appear. I'll save the gory details, but let me just say I learnt a lot. :)

Below are two pictures, the control panel, and one of the wave forms I managed to successfully generate with the Arduino. Possibly only interesting to electronics geeks, but hey, I'm proud of what I've accomplished!

Cheers,

Michael


Very nice vintage HP T&M equipment you have there!

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bratwurst
Posts: 300
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Re: Vintage Air AC Install

Post#12 » Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:08 pm

AlanMcR wrote:
Very nice vintage HP T&M equipment you have there!


Thanks - that's from when HP used to make real products.

My favorite is my HP 5245L frequency counter from 1965. I bought it cheap off eBay, spent a day cleaning it up and now it works wonderfully. Plus if I'm bored at night I can just turn it on and watch the Nixie tubes glow. :)

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Winston
Posts: 3110

Re: Vintage Air AC Install

Post#13 » Sun Aug 04, 2013 8:27 am

Congratulations on the fit. It must feel great to have the finish line in sight.

Can you post any more pics of the modified bracket and turbo intake? I have this same bracket and am trying to figure out a suitable design for adapting it.

Also, what about the radiator plumbing? How far down does that aluminum elbow go? Is it secured in some way, or are the rubber pieces strong enough to not sag/bend?

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bratwurst
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Re: Vintage Air AC Install

Post#14 » Mon Aug 05, 2013 8:23 pm

Winston wrote:Congratulations on the fit. It must feel great to have the finish line in sight.

Can you post any more pics of the modified bracket and turbo intake? I have this same bracket and am trying to figure out a suitable design for adapting it.

Also, what about the radiator plumbing? How far down does that aluminum elbow go? Is it secured in some way, or are the rubber pieces strong enough to not sag/bend?


Attached are some more pics. It's actually pretty tricky to take a good shot.

Some notes:

1- Turbo Intake is basically a 180 degree bend up and out. They did a nice job of fabricating a support that allowed the intake to pass through.

2- They built a reinforcement that mounts to the intake where the air cleaner on the sedan mounted. I liked that solution.

3- On the pic of the compressor, you can see a generic sanden -> york mount adapter that has been welded with the spacer bit they fabricated.

4- The metal hose to lower rad connection connects to about 6" of the old 300D (1979 non-turbo model w/ AC) rad hose. I don't like the fact the old hose was re-used but I'll be replacing that soon. Much better than my hose clamp and glue contraption that got me through 500km or so of driving.
Attachments
photo(9).JPG
photo(12).JPG
photo(11).JPG
photo(10).JPG

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offroad-world
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Re: Vintage Air AC Install

Post#15 » Mon Aug 05, 2013 9:27 pm

oily air does not go through the filter that way .

mfg. guido .
Attachments
CIMG3504.JPG
CIMG3505.JPG

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Winston
Posts: 3110

Re: Vintage Air AC Install

Post#16 » Tue Aug 06, 2013 5:13 am

bratwurst wrote: It's actually pretty tricky to take a good shot.

It's a tight fit in that area. Thanks for posting these extra photos -- they are especially helpful. Looks like they did a great job of allowing you to maintain good access to the turbo inlet.

In the pic with the compressor, there appears to be a tab coming off of the back of the mount (towards the firewall). Is that part of the solution that you mentioned where they were able to fasten it where the sedan air cleaner mounted?

Think these guys would be interested in fabricating another one if I mailed them another sedan bracket?

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bratwurst
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Re: Vintage Air AC Install

Post#17 » Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:36 pm

offroad-world wrote:oily air does not go through the filter that way .

mfg. guido .


Thanks Guido. The disclaimer in my original post was that my engine bay was a mess.... point proven :) Question for you though, I like your solution of welding a connector on the air filter canister. I was going to put mine through the intake tubing (there is a metal connector there). Does your solution cause much oil to get in the filter, or does it stay clean?

Mine is (obviously) black and oily now.

Michael

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offroad-world
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Re: Vintage Air AC Install

Post#18 » Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:38 pm

bratwurst wrote:
offroad-world wrote:oily air does not go through the filter that way .

mfg. guido .


Thanks Guido. The disclaimer in my original post was that my engine bay was a mess.... point proven :) Question for you though, I like your solution of welding a connector on the air filter canister. I was going to put mine through the intake tubing (there is a metal connector there). Does your solution cause much oil to get in the filter, or does it stay clean?

Mine is (obviously) black and oily now.

Michael


hi michael .

mine is behind the filter , so this is perfect .

mfg. guido .

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bratwurst
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Re: Vintage Air AC Install

Post#19 » Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:42 pm

Winston wrote:In the pic with the compressor, there appears to be a tab coming off of the back of the mount (towards the firewall). Is that part of the solution that you mentioned where they were able to fasten it where the sedan air cleaner mounted?

Think these guys would be interested in fabricating another one if I mailed them another sedan bracket?


Yes that tab mounts to the bolts where the old air cleaner was for reinforcement. Seemed to me to be a pretty good idea.

I'm guessing they would have to measure my truck in order to make more... I can check, maybe they kept drawings or something. Probably cheaper for you to look for a local fab shop (I went to a custom 4x4 place) that could do similar work.

Budget wise - the custom fab cost me $600 but everything up here is more expensive.

Cheers,

Michael

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bratwurst
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Re: Vintage Air AC Install - COLD AIR!

Post#20 » Tue Aug 13, 2013 6:52 pm

Well after several years and a few thousand bucks I have finally achieved my personal W460 holy grail. I have AC!

I still need to do some clean-up but wanted to post pics.

If I had to do it again I would look for an MB evaporator, at some point I might look for a 461 unit with a combined evap and heater (I don't like the under-the-centre console unit personally).

The system consists of:

1) 24" wide evaporator from vintage air ($180)
2) Sanden clone compressor from eBay ($130)
3) 2x Model 50 fans from Flex-a-lite ($325)
4) Vintage Air Drier ($50)
5) Vintage Air Gen II Evaporator ($900)
6) Custom bracket ($600)
7) Custom hoses and charge ($900)
8) W202 Climate Control Unit from eBay ($100)
9) Arduino Mega and misc electronics ($100)

Grand total = $3285

I still need to finish the climate control project but for now I can use the (simple) vintage air control system. At the moment, being able to head to the grocery store at mid-day without sweating profusely is totally worth the money.

Cheers,

Michael
Attachments
20130813_190101.jpg
Detail of hookup to evaporator. I had to give up glovebox, but since it always rattled and I am going to install more electronics here, I am not that concerned.
20130813_185823.jpg
Detail of hose route through firewall. I've limited myself on battery size a bit here.
20130813_185802.jpg
Compressor mounted and connected. Its a tight fit! Need to trim the air filter more and re-route oil vent.
20130813_185709.jpg
Twin fans behind grille

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