Air Conditioning

One thing that I've never had working in the car is the air conditioning.  When I put the engine back together and installed it, I just hooked up the A/C hoses as they had been.  The hoses from the evaporator (unit inside the car that gets cold) to the compressor and dryer had been replaced, but whoever did them just ran them across the engine bay.  I have gotten several pictures over the years from cars with A/C so I know where the hoses were supposed to run. 

I tried to get the proper hoses from Maranello Concessionaires in the UK by referencing the Borletti part number from the A/C manual.  However when they crossed those numbers to Ferrari parts, the lengths were all wrong.  So I just ignored the situation for a long time.

Recently, Will Stevenson, a 330 GTC owner, did some research and found that the original hose material, Aeroquip 1540 is still available.  Here's a picture of an original hose (from a 365 GTC/4) showing the markings and 2/67 manufacture date.  You can also see the aluminum band with the Borletti part number stamped on it.

Will also lives in western Washington, so his contact for the material was a local Seattle company.  I re-checked the lengths I wanted and ordered the right lengths and sizes.

Since two of my hoses had been replaced, I didn't have the right ends.  However, when I was in LA last, I got some scrap hoses from Tom Shaughnessy off a 365 GTC/4 that had been burned.  I had tried to remove the ends, but couldn't figure out how they fit together.  Will provided these instructions illustrated with my pictures:

"The fittings come off of the hose ends pretty easily once you have the right tools. You'll need a good vice and an adjustable wrench. If you have hoses with straight fittings on the hose ends (i.e., not a 45 degree or 90 degree fitting on the hose end), you will need to go to a good hardware store and buy the correct male brass flare fitting that screws into the female straight fitting on the end of your hose. These hoses and fittings are all SAE, as the A/C systems Ferrari used in the 60s were US made (York compressors, Aeroquip hose, etc.) to the best of my knowledge.

"If you have a 45 or 90 degree fitting on the end of your hose, just clamp the hose in your vice by the metal piece that covers the hose (i.e., the piece that the hose actually goes into), put your wrench on the nut that is part of the 45/90 fitting and unscrew it in the normal direction. It might be stiff, but it will come unscrewed. After that fitting is unscrewed and removed from the hose, the metal piece that was clamped in the vice will unscrew from the hose itself. BUT, the hose unscrews from that piece OPPOSITE to the normal direction for unscrewing. This all assumes that you have hose fittings that are the reusable type, NOT the swaged/crimped type.

"If you have a straight fitting on your hose, first screw the male brass flare fitting you got at the hardware store into the female hose fitting and tighten securely. Then clamp the hose in a vice by the metal piece that covers the hose (as above), put your wrench on the female hose fitting that screws onto the male brass flare fitting you got at the hardware store, unscrew it in the normal direction, and continue as outlined above."

I didn't have the correct male flare fitting, so I just used the fitting on the dryer. Since the end is designed to rotate, you have to have the flare fitting to pin the inside fitting to the hex nut. Then the ferrule and hose unscrew normally and the hose unscrews from ferrule in the opposite direction.

Cutting the new hose stock required some special attention to get a clean cut and prevent fraying.  The mobile A/C person that I use suggested wrapping the hose with masking tape and then using a cutoff wheel to get a clean cut.

Putting the fittings on the new hose is the reverse of taking them off (see the Aeroquip instructions).  First you screw the ferrule (LH threads) onto the hose.  Then you use some A/C lubricant for the threads and cone of the fitting and screw it onto the ferrule.

Routing the hoses correctly means making the right clips with rubber insulation to hold the hoses.  I have some wide shrink wrap, so I used that over the clips.

After studying several 330s with A/C, I think that mine may have been added after the car was built though all of the components are OEM.  In comparing my installed unit with the pictures in the parts books, mine is installed using the GTC brackets and crank pulley.  I'll be in Monterey at Concorso Italiano in a couple of weeks.  I'll see if anybody has a late 330 GT with air conditioning and get a good look at how theirs is mounted.  To get the hoses in the right place, I had to move one of the engine compartment lights.  The light needed to go where the serial number plaque is riveted on the fire wall, so that was moved to the right side forward of the shock access panel.

I also made a set of aluminum bands with the correct part numbers for the four new hoses.  There's an original at the top.

There are two drain hoses that I never replaced when I originally rebuilt and installed the engine.  These drain the condensate from inside the car.  You can see one new hose along with its new copiglia clamp.

I finally got Fred, the mobile A/C guy out to evacuate and recharge both the 330 and 308.  On the 330, I had loosened a fitting at the compressor to have the hose to the condenser take a natural bend as I installed it.  But I had forgotten to tighten it again.  So we couldn't pull a vacuum.  After pressurizing the system with air at 100 PSI, it was obvious where the leak was.  A turn of a wrench stopped the leak and we were back evacuating.

Fred and his mobile A/C truck

While the system was being recharged, I started the car and turned on the air conditioning.  I had previously checked that the electrics worked and the compressor clutch engaged properly.  But as the pressure built up from the additional Freon, the belts to the compressor started slipping.  We were able to put in a full charge (1 kg) without the engine running, but now I have to take off those belts, find correct replacements, put them on and then adjust the tension.  Adjusting the tension is difficult as it is done with shims that push the compressor away from the crankshaft pulley.  I'll have to pull out my Italian dictionary to see if the A/C manual (only available in Italian) specifies the amount of tension on these belts.

I have never paid a lot of attention to the A/C since it wasn't high on my priority list compared with everything else I had.  So I wasn't surprised that the belts were toast.

Changing the A/C belts is non-trivial.  The first thing you do is loosen and remove the alternator belt.  Then you loosen the A/C unit, remove all of the shims and get the belts off the pulleys.  This is difficult since there is only about 1/2" of adjustment using the shims.  Then you have to pry the A/C unit away from the front cover a little so the belts can be taken off.  These belts had no markings and I couldn't find any cross reference with the Pirelli numbers in the parts catalog, so I took them to my local NAPA store and got replacements by having them measured.  The belts that came off measured 31 1/4" on the outside circumference.  Since they were loose and all of the shims were in use, I went with a belt that was marked 30 3/8" long.  I couldn't get it on and when I measured it, the actual length was 30".  So back to the store.  I got the next size up, or 30 7/8" (actual 30 1/2").  I put one of these on, but neglected to get the second one past the timing cover/AC tight place.  With the one belt on, it was impossible to move the A/C unit enough to allow the second belt past that point.  Even with just the one belt on, it seemed that there wasn't enough length.  So I got 2 more belts, 31" long, almost the same length as the ones I took off.  I removed the single belt and installed the two longer ones.  Of course, after these were on and everything was positioned correctly, they were too long.  So I went back to the intermediate length, remembering to get them in the right places to start.  Once they were installed, there was about 1/4" of play where the shims go.  So two 3mm shims on each side tightened everything down with a good tension of the belts.  The extra shims get stored on the studs that bolt the compressor to the base bracket.

For those into masochism, here are the steps to install the two A/C belts.

1. Force both belts past the harmonic damper by the lower A/C bracket (see blue arrow below).

2. Put one on the shaft behind the crank pulley around the shaft so it will have the most length.  This belt will be the front-most one.

3. Put the other belt behind the first on the crank pulley but keep it loose so the first one can be tight around the shaft.

4. Slip the first belt between the compressor and timing cover (See red circle below).  Pull it out to the maximum available length.

5. Slip the second belt between the compressor and timing cover.  Leave it with the slack down by the crank pulley.

6. Install the first belt on the front compressor pulley (second pulley in).

7. Using a large screwdriver, force the first belt onto the rear crank pulley by rotating the engine.  This will pull the belt onto the pulley as you turn the crank.  Make sure that the belt is aligned correctly on both the crank and compressor pulleys and not twisted (I think that happened on my first try with the correct sized belt).

8. Similarly, move that belt from the rear crank pulley to the middle one.  (The front pulley is for the alternator).

9. Now, move the second belt so it is tight on the shaft behind the pulleys.

10. Pull the extra slack to the compressor end and put the belt on the rear compressor pulley.

11. Repeat step 7 to install it on the rear crank pulley.

12. Add appropriate shims between the bracket on the compressor and the one mounted to the engine.

13. Lastly, install the alternator belt on the front crank pulley.

I did this four times before I got the correct length belts installed.  I had the opportunity to look at a 330 GTC with A/C last weekend.  Its setup was identical to mine.  One of the belt markings were visible (Dayco 15725) so I looked it up on the internet.  Its outside circumference is 28 9/64", clearly too short for my car.  So I guess that the mounting points for the brackets are different on the GTC.

The final belts that I used were NAPA 9305 (same number in a Gates belt), marked 30 7/8" long, but measure 30 1/2".  The blue oval shows where the shims are installed.  The red circle is the tight space between the timing cover and the compressor.  The blue arrow points to the tight space between the harmonic damper and the lower compressor bracket.

Since all of the belts were out of the way, I took the opportunity to change the front seal on the crank.  This was leaking a little and oil ends up getting thrown all over the front of the engine.  As I helped Lowell Brown do this on his 330 a while ago, I've just added a couple of notes to that story.

It took a couple of weeks to get the belts replaced.  When that was done, the A/C didn't seem to be working properly.  The sight glass didn't show any bubbles, so that means either the system is full or empty.  Fred came out this morning and gave me the bad news.  No Freon was left in the system, so I have a leak.  He put in a couple of ounces and then used his Freon sniffer to find the leak.  It's about the worse place it could be, in the evaporator inside the dash.  To get at the evaporator requires removing the whole dash, something I've never done and not looking forward to.  Fred also suggested replacing the front seal on the compressor along with the expansion valve.  I'll pull the compressor first as I'll need the car on the lift for that.  Then I can do the dash work off the lift to leave it free for other cars. 

There's a FCA NW region tour in a couple of weeks that I'm taking the 330 on, so this will have to wait.  Oh well, another winter project.

Well, winter rapidly turns into spring, but I'm back on the evaporator problem.  I have removed the dash and hope to get the evaporator out today.

It turns out that the blower motors are attached to the evaporator box, so the console had to be removed.  As I was trying to figure out how it all fit together, I looked at the A/C manual.  I noticed that there are two ducts that I don't have in my car.

The part 7, convogliatore, are ducts that take cool air and put it down into the foot wells when the flaps (5 & 6) are opened by their levers.  I also have to cut appropriate holes in the panel at the bottom rear of the console.  My console didn't have that panel, so I made one quite a while ago.  I had seen someone's console and noticed the panel and holes, but never understood the purpose of the holes so I didn't cut them.  The ducts will be interesting to make in that each side will be unique, cut and fit as needed.  I think I'll do a mock up using construction paper before cutting any aluminum.  Click here for the duct work story.

Since the dash is out, all of the wire ends are exposed.  Over the years, several ends have been replaced with the original plastic insulators having been lost.  So I spent an hour or so putting shrink wrap in place of the usual electrical tape wrapped over the connectors.

Well, I finally got the evaporator box out.  The hardest part was getting the LH drain hose off.  I put it on when the distributors were off the car and the access was much better.  I'm not sure how I'll get it put back on.  Maybe I can stick it through the hole and put it on before fitting the box completely on the car.  But that's a future problem.

You can see squirrel cage fans on the bottom.  They pull air from the openings in the sides of the console and blow it through the evaporator core.  The two air inlets holes on the top are connected to the fresh air from the vent forward of the windshield.  If you have that open, then some fresh air will be mixed with the recirculated air from the fans.  In front of the evaporator is the three vents in the dash, sealed with the rubber gasket you see partially hanging from the box.  I've already taken off the flaps that, when opened, stick up into the air flow and direct some of the air through the (non-existent) ducts to the foot wells.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the tubing of the evaporator is copper.  That will make repairing it much simpler than if it was aluminum like I thought.  My problem is probably where you can see the bent tubing on the output side.  It looks like someone tried to remove the A/C hose without using a wrench on the evaporator side and twisted the tubing.

So the next thing I have to do is to get a couple of fittings that I can screw on and be able to connect up an air compressor to try and find the leak.

Well, the leak wasn't on the twisted fitting, but on the other one.  There were actually three leaks.  You can see the arrows pointing them out. 

I haven't figured out how to fix them yet as the tubing seems to be soldered to the steel housing (for support) using silver solder.  At least it's a much higher melting point solder than lead solder.  It isn't brass though.  The leaks are actually at the outer edge of the solder where it ends on the steel plate.  Evidently the tubing is compromised inside the solder support and there are some bad places where the solder is not tightly bound to the steel plate.  So the leaks run under the solder support on top of the plate to the edge.  You can see the fittings I added to allow pressurizing of the evaporator by the compressor.  I talked to my A/C guy and he recommended no higher pressure than 100 PSI.  I started with 50 PSI and that was plenty to have the soapy water bubble where the leaks were.

I again consulted my A/C repairman.  Fred said to bring the evaporator out to him and he could fix the leaks.  We had also talked about replacing the front seal on the compressor so I removed it.  When he sniffed for the leak, he spent quite a bit of time at the front seal before finding it at the evaporator.  He was surprised that the front seal wasn't leaking given the age of the compressor.  So he's going to be replacing it at the same time as fixing the evaporator in addition to getting a new expansion valve.  Since everything is apart, there's no sense on having something else go wrong in a year or two.  He had suggested replacing the expansion valve before recharging it last time, but I wasn't willing to take the dash apart just for that.  But now, it's cheap insurance.

The evaporator and the compressor are back from the shop.  Fred used some 1/2" OD refrigerant copper tubing to replace the bad section.  The one end had a special crimp that let two small lines be attached that lead into the coils.  The other end had a normal flare fitting.  He cut that line in two, just behind the leaky area.  Then he took a short section of the new tubing and put a flare fitting on the one end.  He expanded the other end so the ID was 1/2", thus letting it fit over the remains of old section.  Silver soldering them together and to the brace finished the repair (circled area).  A pressure test with some Freon confirmed that the evaporator was no longer leaking.

I had a new front seal put into the compressor as a precautionary measure.  In addition, Fred pointed out that the brushes feeding the magnetic clutch were quite worn.  These are no longer available, but he had a newer style clutch where the electromagnet is a ring fixed to the compressor.  Since the electromagnet is no longer in the rotating part, it eliminates the brush problem.

The expansion valve was also replaced.  So everything is ready to be put back together once I have made the missing ducts.

One of the other things I noticed was the number 45 stamped on the evaporator case parts.  This would be the Pininfarina body number.  However, my car is 592 or 92 for the last two digits.  That confirms that the A/C on my car was not new at the factory, but added on, probably obtained from a wrecked car.  That explains the misrouted hoses, missing ducts, etc.

First I re-installed the compressor and hooked up all of the A/C hoses.  Pretty straight forward using my belt installation notes above.

I got the evaporation unit ready to re-install.  Among other things I was concerned with was the opening where the A/C tubing came into the box.  I decided to fabricate a aluminum plate to cover that opening as best possible.  The next problem was how to get the condensate hoses attached.  There is almost no access to the LH drain with the distributors installed and limited access on the RH side.  So I opted to install them on the evaporator case before putting the evaporator in place.  Here you can see the back side of the evaporator with the plate on the upper left and the hoses hanging down.  One thing that I found out when I translated the A/C manual page on the evaporator installation was that the bottoms of the hoses are supposed to be cut at an angle with the long side towards the front of the car.  You can see the cut at the bottom of the hose on the right.

This meant that the hoses would have to fit through the openings in the firewall.  The RH side was no problem as there is a large opening for the A/C tubing.  But the LH side was just sized for the condensate drain.  I tried fitting the hose through and it fit until where it was over the drain.  That made it wider there plus the copiglia clamp and no way was it going.  I ended up using a cutter wheel on the Dremel to expand the hose just enough so it would fit.

After the evaporator was in place, I looked at the opening through the firewall.  At the bottom on the inside was a 1"x2" area that the evaporator didn't cover.  The engine side needed a large plate to cover the whole opening.

Once the plates were made, I could attach the A/C lines and finish the installation.  In addition to re-installing the dash, there were a number of other things to put back together.  These included the belly pan (removed for the condensate hoses), battery, fuse box cover and washer bag.

Another set back occurred on the A/C.  Everything was together and Fred, the A/C guy, came out.  When he went to evacuate the system, it wouldn't pump down and hold the vacuum.  We pressurized the system with about 70 PSI and found that the new expansion valve fitting leaking at the evaporator.  This is about the worse place for a fitting leak.  Fred went to another job, but left the gauges and vacuum pump so I could tighten the fitting, check the pressure and then have the system already evacuated when he came back.

In order to get wrenches on the expansion valve/evaporator fitting, I had to remove the washer bag, fuse panel cover, distributor cap, firewall plate and both of the hoses.  You can see them in the picture with the blue arrow above.  Fred also left me some blue leak stop material.  It's like a thread lock, but made for flare fittings.  So I removed the expansion valve, put a little on the flare and tightened it back up.  Then I put the two hoses back on (using more stop leak).

I pressurized the system again and didn't hear any leak back by the evaporator.  But I did hear a leak in the compressor area.  I took both hoses off there and put them back on with some of the leak stop.  Still heard a leak, so I mixed up some soapy water solution (a little water and hand dish soap).  Soaping all of the fittings on the top of the compressor didn't show any leak.  I figured that it must be the compressor front seal which was confirmed as I was rinsing the soapy water off.  When the rinse water dripped behind the pulleys, I could hear some bubbling.

After talking to Fred, we decided to remove the compressor and get another new front seal installed.  This time, Fred will pressure test the compressor before I put it back in the car.  It's interesting that the original front seal was holding and replacing it was a measure of prevention.  Instead, it is costing me more time removing and replacing the compressor.

At least we didn't waste a load of Freon before finding this out.  If I had known how much work this whole project is ending up to be, I would have lived without the A/C.  But I'm in so deep that I want to finish the job right.

I took the compressor out of the car and made up some fittings so I could pressurize it using the air compressor.  A little soapy water let me find out that the leak was coming from the outside of the front cover, not around the shaft.  I took off the front cover and compared it to my old one (the front seal kit comes with a new cover).  My old one was flat while the new one had a groove for the circular seal.  The front on my compressor had the groove in it.  Evidently York changed design and moved the groove location.  The net result was that the seal was in two grooves and couldn't seal properly.  Here you can see the groove in the new cover.

After cleaning and putting on my old cover, the compressor has held pressure for 24 hours now.

The other thing that I noticed as I was fixing the leaks was that the electromagnetic clutch wouldn't always click in.

When I took the compressor off originally, the clutch that was on it was a very old style (probably original from 1967) which had the electromagnet in the rotating portion with brushes on slip rings to provide the power.  The one brush was almost gone and they aren't available anymore.  So I got a used newer model clutch from Fred that has a stationary electromagnet.  So no brushes to wear out.

This seemed to work when we tested it as the first time or two you actuate it, it works.  However after that, it would draw power, but not engage until you helped it just a little.  So I'm getting a new clutch too.  What's another $200!  At least I didn't have to replace the compressor which is over $600.

Now I have to wait for the new clutch to come, install it on the compressor and the compressor on the car and then we can try re-charging the Freon again.

I got the new clutch, installed it on the compressor and put the compressor back in the car.  I'm getting better at it, only about an hour from start to finish.  Then Fred came out, evacuated the system (no leaks!) and put 2.2 lbs of R-12 Freon in.

Then I got to use my latest toy, an infra-red digital sensor.  As you can see, the reading with the A/C off is 62.5° F (it is the middle of September in Seattle!) while it's 22.5° F with it running, a cool 40° drop.

This sensor is really neat, just point it at the object you want the temperature and press the button.  In this case, I'm pointing in between the louvers at the A/C evaporator.  The instructions say to have it about 4" away, but frequently you just need a relative temperature.  This is the case of measuring the temps on each exhaust header pipe to see if each cylinder is firing.  Beats licking your finger and touching each one.

I'm not sure that this project is ever going to end.  We took the 330 down to Tacoma to Griot's Garage sale and then back to Festa Italiano at the Seattle Center.  Afterwards, I noticed that the forward most A/C belt was rotated 90° on the A/C pulley.  It was still running true on the crank pulley.  I ended up talking to an engineer at Dayco, one of the major belt makers in the US.  I had already noticed that the alternator belt was narrower than the A/C belts and that the A/C belts partially stuck above the pulleys.  The engineer confirmed that I was using too wide of belt and that was the cause of the problem.  You can see where the belt sticks up in the following picture.

The other thing I found out from the engineer is about 'matched' belts.  For applications with use dual pulleys, the belt makers provide belts in match pairs.  These are cut from the same stock on the same machine, so they are exactly the same length.  That way both belts end up with the same tension and equal load.  If you don't have matched belts, then one is a little tighter and ends up taking most of the load.  The only catch is that Dayco doesn't make matched belts in this size!  His only suggestion was to make sure that the tightest one was tensioned properly.  We also discussed what tension these belts should have.  For a single 11mm belt, the initial tension should be 110 lbs and no less than 90 lbs after run-in.  A dual 11 belt setup is 105 lbs and 90 lbs respectively.  I used my NAPA belt tension meter to set the proper tension.  Another thing I learned was that the modern belts don't stretch.  Instead, they seat into the pulleys, which makes them looser after a while.  That's why to check the tension after some use to make sure that they aren't too loose.

It's been quite a while since I had the A/C charged up.  I've noticed that the icy cold changed to cold and now just to cool over the years.  In looking at the sight glass, I could see bubbles, so it was just low on Freon.  I've had an old can of DIY R12 I bought many years ago.  Amazingly enough, it still had some Freon in it.  So I attached it to the low pressure side and opened the valve on the intake.  Then with the engine running at about 2000 RPM, I opened the valve on the can.  It started to get cold, so I knew that the Freon was boiling off and going into the car's system.  It took about 10 minutes to exhaust the can.  The sight glass still had bubbles, but the air from the evaporator was significantly colder.  The before and after weights of the can showed that I ended up putting 7 oz. into the system.  It needs more, so I'll have to stop by my A/C repair guy's shop and have him top it off.  But since I have 400 miles to drive in the next two days (Forest Grove Concours) and it's going to be hot, I'll be cooler at least at highway speeds where the car won't overheat from the extra load.  By hot, here in Seattle, anything above 80° is considered hot and it'll be closer to 90.