Date:         Sun, 10 Mar 1996 14:14:09 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dlytle@as.arizona.edu (Dyer Lytle)
Subject:      '66 air conditioner (description + anyone want it?)



Hi all,

Yesterday I extracted the "Nordic" air conditioner from my project '66 bus.
I thought I'd describe it for my own satisfaction and post the description
to the listserve in case anyone is interested.

The unit described came on the 1966 standard microbus that I bought 1.5
years ago.  The bus had a blown engine when I got it (which had been removed
and disassembled) and as I have yet to get an engine installed, I have no
experience with the air conditioner in use.

In the pile of engine parts that I inherited with the bus I noticed that
the crankshaft end pulley can accommodate *two* drive belts, one for the
normal generator/fan installation and one for the air conditioner compressor.
There is also a large, heavy, "York" compressor mounted on a complicated
bracket that must somehow mount to the engine (I never saw it in place.)

On the roof of the bus, near the back of the roof, there was a box about
two feet wide, 8 inches high, and a foot long.  This box had a metal top
and sides and plastic gratings on the front and back that would allow air
to flow through the box.  Inside the box were two heat exchangers and two
fans.  The larger/thicker heat exchanger was at the front of the box and
the thinner one at the back.  The two fans sat side by side between the
heat exchangers and covered a good portion of the cross section of the
heat exchangers.  (to be used in stop and go traffic, when normal air
flow would be at a minimum, I imagine)  The fans are 6 volt.

Inside the bus, directly beneath the first box, attached to the roof,
behind the rear seat, was another box roughly the same size as the first.
This box contained another heat exchanger and two squirrel-cage fans.
This box also had a plastic grating on the back where air could flow in
and louvered/directional air outlets on the front with a control knob
between them.

There were a couple big hoses wrapped in a plastic jacket that ran down the 
inside of the back of the bus and went through a hole into the engine
compartment.  There also was a fitting in the roof of the bus to allow
the freon pipes to pass through.  With this removed, there are two 3/4"
holes that I will have to patch (weld in plugs, grind flat, body putty)
I think, in the box of engine parts, there is a long wire and some controls
that are meant to be mounted at the dash but that have been removed.)

The whole thing struck me as very well constructed (and heavy! :-( ).
I removed it because I really don't want to load down my engine by
asking it to drive a compressor, specially on hot days when I would need
it.  (I'm planning to build a bone stock 1600 DP for this vehicle except
for full flow oil filter, sand seal, balance, and mebbe hydraulic lifters.)
Also, I don't know how much longer freon will be available nor if any of
the substitutes could be made to work.

Its sitting in my back yard.  Does anybody want it?  If not, I'm going to
extract some of the fans and junk the rest.

You can see a picture of the bus with the air conditioner box mounted at:

   http://as.arizona.edu/~dlytle/lytle/red.trailer.gif


Cheers,

 -Dyer


------------------------
Dyer Lytle              
dlytle@as.arizona.edu   
HST NICMOS Project      
Steward Observatory     
University of Arizona   
------------------------