Replaced all ac components with a modern and more efficient unit. Purchased ac kit from coldmaster, tampa, Florida. Sanden sd508 compressor, evaporator, condenser, and all the hoses and fittings for $477.00. Compressor mounted where alternator was, alternator relocated to old ac location.

 

hey there... some questions:

- are the compressor and alternator on 2 separate belts? are any other components running off those belts, like the fan?

- did you do the in-dash evaporator replacement yourself? how long did that take?

 

separate belts, now have 3 belts. yes i did the evaporator, just modified from front exit to top,

 

sounds like a good price for the set. I need to get mine done sometime, it was changed over for the new Freon, but since it was sitting for some time before I bought it I am going to change the hoses and seals. I need something for our hot Nebraska days in the summer. guess I could do a 2/120. 2 windows down and 120mph LOL

 

Good job. Do you have pics of the evaporator installation? I was thinking of doing this modification. That looks like VintageAir.

 

I've had my XJS celebration ( 1996 ) for nearly 7 years and just last year repaired the A.C system. In that time I have repaired aluminium line leaks and replaced the valve on the firewall and the receiver drier, but ultimately the pump was replaced. A new Sanden unit was over £750 in the U.K and a refurbed one around £500. Saw a new one for sale on ebay for £80 and bought it, it had been wanted for a kit car project. When I got it out of its box ( yes it was new ) I saw the cylinder head was different fittings ( ugh ) and the pulley was a multi belt type. Not a good start.
So I swapped over the cylinder head which was surprisingly easy, then started on the pulley. This proved to be a bit more difficult, surprisingly as it had been removed a few years earlier in a vain attempt to fit a service kit to the pump. The problem was the original pump had/has a key'd shaft and the new one was a splined shaft. Anyway, after getting the two pulleys off, the new splined shaft pump unit accepted the old pulley without and problems. My new pump for some reason only had three feet for mounting so I cut one off the old one and used Gorilla glue to fix it in its new position. Was going to alu weld it but the high temps generated would have melted the rubber seals on the inside.
So fitted another new receiver drier and took it to get recharged.
I worked, so quite happy with the overall cost of £35 for recharge, £27 for drier and £80 for pump, not to bad.
Thunderbird 2 back on the road with A.C, here's to another 43k miles.
Cheers,
ArtyH

 

Warren,

Thanks, the new evaporator is so much stronger than the old. The fans are in the back so its a very short run to the vents. The evaporator came with the kit from ColdMaster. Here are some pictures of the unit previous to modifying the hose manifolds to the top. I will take some pictures on the instalation today.

 

that is an awesome price. If anyones AC ever skips a beat this is the way to go