Wednesday, October 28, 2009

A/C Compressor is Mounted


Above, you can see the compressor mounted in the chassis. The arm on top is the arc that lets the compressor swing toward and away from the motor in order to tighten the belt. Below the compressor and just to the right, you can make out the gray plate that the bottom mounts are attached to. You can see that toward the upper right of the plate, the motor mount is bolted down on top of it. Also, you'll notice that now that I have the motor mount in place, I was able to finally mount the passenger side brace from the motor mount to the motor to help control any torque spin the motor might try under load.

On to the next project, the heater. With the engine gone, there's nothing to make hot water for the heat exchanger in the cabin. That equals no hot air, which could be bad if I need to defog the windshield. To replace the heat exchanger (which is really just a small radiator) I've got a small ceramic heater.


On the left is the original heat exchanger. On the right is the new ceramic heater. In the center is the box/sled I made out of sheet metal to hold the new heater. It has to be the same size as the original heater core so that it can be mounted in the same place. Below it are two rails that were attached to the heater core. They help the heater core slide in and out of the opening. Once I've got the sled drilled and screwed together, I'll need to cut out a space in the middle for the ceramic heater. The sled will do two things. First it will hold the heater, and second, it will fill the space that the original did, forcing air through the heater instead of letting it get around the element.


Here I've got the box pretty much assembled with the rails mounted to the side. Next, I need to cut some holes in it to accept the new element, and close the ends up. I'll put some foam weather stripping around it in strategic locations and put it in place.

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