air conditioning on 72 chevelles [Archive]

oman

Feb 18th, 02, 11:13 AM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by KATHY'S KLASSIC SHEVELLE: "I know Vintage air has kits for other years but not for the 72"s".

I don't know about all these substitute refrigerants. This scares the hell out of me and EVERY experienced A/C shop I ever talked to says stay away from HC and Propane. Oh well kids do what ever you want. Just cause it works doesn't mean it wont kill you if it leaks or explodes. Man I cannot believe people do things like this.

Here is what I do know about the VA Sure Fit Kit for a 72 Chevelle. I am in the process of doing a conversion to VA right now and I HAVE NOT Finished but I check things pretty well before I jump in and I am very sure this is going to work. All I think you need is a VA Sure Fit kit for a 69 Chevelle that was originally equipped with A/C and a dash panel control unit from a 72 Chevelle that originally did NOT have A/C! The dash panel control unit will replace the A/C control unit you have as a bolt in. I know it I have done it. Read on.......

I am using a VA kit for a 69 Chevelle that would have originally been equipped with factory A/C. The issue in using a 69 kit in a 72 revolves around the cable actuator mech. in the dash panel. The VA system requires 3 cables. Some time in early 70 The General decided to change the control panel on A/C equipped cars to a panel that had two cables. Some of the function of that disappearing third cable was from then on performed by an electric switch as opposed to the cable. Why that is better and why they did it is unknown to me.

Cars built after early to mid 70 with original factory A/C have only 2 cables. Cars originally built in 72 WITHOUT A/C have three cables controlling the heater. All these cables do on a stock system is route air around to different outlets like the floor or the defraust. The little verticle switch controls the blower speed only on non A/C equipped factory cars.

I have test fit a 72 non A/C dash control to the VA Sure Fit R134 kit for a 69 /early 70 Chevelle under dash system. Things hook up just like the VA instructions for a Sure Fit kit designed to replace a 69 or early 70 R-12 Factory system say they should. It is as simple as connect the top cable to lever A on the under dash unit, connect the middle cable to lever B on the under dash unit and Connect the bottom cable to lever C.

I have not fired up this system yet and VA says "It should work if it has three cables" They are NOT telling me it will work and I MUST restate that fact. I should add that the non air 72 control panel accepts the new VA blower speed control switch no sweat, just like the instructions say. There is one switch on the new under dash VA system that controls the temperature of the VA A/C. Since that switch is not part of the dash control panelit has no effect on the dash control panel cable operations. I am going to stick that control thru my lighter hole to aviod reaching under the dash to control the temp.

I gotta add that I have a fair amount of experience with these stock systems. I have converted the car in question from non A/C to factory A/C using donor car parts and I am pretty sure this is going to be OK.

I am converting to R-134 because I just will not run thru the aggravation of keeping an R-12 system up and running any longer. Also I will not experiment with potentially explosive chemical mixes a few feet away from me.

[This message has been edited by oman (edited 02-18-2002).]