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Aee/Cee in the SNOJEEP

1K views 20 replies 6 participants last post by  CJDave 
#1 ·
/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif After we searched this BBS for a Stock Jeep A/C, we got a lot of good advice and a lot of help "scoping" out some for sale units. We finally chose the one that 77cj-7 located for us, and I have to say that it turned out to be a prime specimen. Considering that this unit has been around since the mid eighties at least, it is in remarkable shape. Dirt Dog warned us about the chintzyness of the after market units, and now I'm especially glad that we took his advice. We are still rounding up some of the necessary components, but the under-dash evaporator was the biggie, and the item that had us the most concerned. Many thanks to all who helped us in our search....jayanger, Dirt Dog, and especially to Don & Kiki for checking on this unit and seeing to it that it was a good one to buy./wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif

CJDave
Quadra-Trac modified by the crack moonguy/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif transfer case team.
 
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#3 ·
/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif I thought that when the heat rolled off those Kansas wheat fields, that it got downright hot at times?/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif

CJDave
Quadra-Trac modified by the crack moonguy/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif transfer case team.
 
#5 ·
/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif Heat....we got! We installed a center console riser with an aftermarket box heater to heat our feetsies so our Jeep heater can concentrate on the defroster. Also, we are going WAYYYYY out on a limb and re-routing the water system in the 304 to do (what we THINK) will be a better job of heating in winter and cooling in summer./wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif

CJDave
Quadra-Trac modified by the crack moonguy/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif transfer case team.
 
#6 ·
Glad you got it going Dave./wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif You'll be happier in the long run with factory pcs. I relized(spelling) that TR has the same motto.
"Off the shelf (anywhere you go) is a GOOD thing".
Glad to help.

"No officer I haven't been drinking , Thats just how my Jeep drives"
 
#7 ·
/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif Well, we're not exactly going as yet, but we can at least see that it is going to fit up and work OK. We have been holding off doing a lot of inside stuff because we could not be sure how much underdash space would be consumed by the evap unit. Our compressor installation is going good, and now for that condenser....../wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif We only wanted to pull the radiator out one time, and do everything all at once...the condenser, the radiator cleanup, the shroud, the clutch, the fan...../wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif

CJDave
Quadra-Trac modified by the crack moonguy/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif transfer case team.
 
#8 ·
Hey Dave, you should fabricate a way to separate the condenser from the radiator without having to recover your refrigerant charge, if possible. Sometimes crud builds up between the two coils and that would make it easier for you to get at it in order to clean it up good. Airflow is a good thing, you know./wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif
 
#9 ·
/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif I'm not that far as yet, but just reading the manual, it says that the radiator has to come out first, so if I just do a good job of running the A/C hoses in a way that doesn't restrict the removal of the radiator, it should then be possible to pull it and blast the still-charged condenser from the backside. I know what you mean, my Dodge pickup did that real bad....I mean REAL bad./wwwthreads_images/icons/frown.gif

CJDave
Quadra-Trac modified by the crack moonguy/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif transfer case team.
 
#10 ·
Actually, I haven't had any of that trouble with the Cherokee in this regard. It seems to me a CJ would present more of an access problem than a XJ or ZJ, for instance. My first hand experience with that crud build up thingy is from my cousin in Seattle's 1989 Range Rover. What he had to do to clean it without having to remove the radiator and recover the refrigerant was to remove the fan and shroud and squirt water in reverse of the airflow. Not a 100% solution..... a pretty envolved procedure for just cleaning the coils but, like my Cherokee, his is stock and that's how it comes from the factory. It does, however, beat overheating!!/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif
 
#11 ·
Dave-
The (second), stock unit I bought on the off-road "for sale" section 8 months ago is still in the two shipping boxes I recieved from what seemed a really nice fellow are still sitting unopened in my garage.
I sent the first one back to a guy who thought that a few baseball bat sized "sticks" had not done enough damage to the radiator to mention and that full length fisures in the under dash housing were'nt worth mentioning either.
(In return, not many can get a bank cashiers check stopped, but I did)
Wish me luck that what I got this time is at least most of what I hoped for and be forwarned I will probably be picking your brain when I try to install it this fall.
(I just hope to heck I can get my project jeep running by end of summer .. and even getting the A/C up by next spring at the rate I'm going).

JAF
http://www.monsterslayer.com/jeep
 
#12 ·
/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif John....I downloaded your special instructions about "sifting" A/C units and sent them to the guys who were checking on the units for me. It was a real factor in getting a good unit. Ours is out of a 77 CJ 304. The compressor was on an aftermarket bracket, but we had already found a real Jeep bracket kit so it was no problem. We have a nice York compressor with the double-groove pulley, and all of the fittings are push-on except the evap unit itself, which makes it easy to fit up new hoses. Our carb has the high idle solenoid already on it from the waggie that was the donor, so we will hook that to the compressor circuit so it picks up the idle when it is pumping. From what I can tell, the later CJ evap units had the control buttons between the last vent and the second vent. The early ones like ours have the buttons on the extreme end. We are really pushing to finally get the SNOJEEP going so Vickie can get a lot of hours in during summer weather so it will be real familiar the first time she has to drive in the white stuff./wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif

CJDave
Quadra-Trac modified by the crack moonguy/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif transfer case team.
 
#13 ·
Dave-
Glad you could use the first hand advice from my first AC purchase experience.
I'm kinda hesitant to open those boxes of the second, used AC unit I bought. But, it is sure were packaged well by the seller who packed it at his work place. A good sign indeed. Especially since he expressed a great pride in workmanship and was proud of the custom aluminum plate he had made for the new switches he'd installed. A very good sign indeed.
I remembering him saying it was not a York comressor but rather a rotorary? / cyclical ? type. Another reason to be afraid to look. I've got a lot to learn here since I have seen no references to this type.
One saving grace is that is has already been upgraded to the newer type freon.
I finally got off my behind and started back on the CJ(spring will do that). It's been a very hectic at work and this is a real drain on an aging body (mine). I'm surprised at how little there is to do to get this puppy on the road. It's funny I have not named it yet since I usually give things some name.
My first hot-rod, a blue '57 Chevy hard top was christened "Blue Tennis Shoe"
I built (lived under) it way back in the 60's. It was real fast....
I really like naming vehicles like Sno-Jeep or Jeepskate.
All boats have names. I even dubbed my Cheyenne Blazer "Shy Annie".
This one's name still hasn't come to me yet.
I'm rubbing out my home shot paint job and have been having fun screwing down a few of those pretty stainless and steel diamond plate add-ons that you always see first but have to wait and install at the very last of a restore. Last week I even uncrated and installed the wench I got for X-mas from my wife. Now there's a good woman! She's not quite Jeep Chick material though since she canceled our reservations to use her new G/Cherokee to go on last fall's first Moab Jamboree to instead visit her mother.
Since am now determined to get it rolling and refuse to go back now and pull the radiator to try to retrofit the AC stuff on the front end.
I just yesterday did the first trial fit of the completed dash (now that the top of the cowl/windshield seat area is polished and waxed) and know what you mean by trying to size up the fit of the under dash AC housing.
My dash wiring looks a lot different when I'm laying upside down staring up under it so it will take me a while to remember (using all the home-made diagrams I drew months ago) which dash wire goes where - including all the rest of the post firewall (Painfull [sic])wiring.
Thanks for the reply and keep up the good work.
You are a tremendous asset to this board.

JAF
http://www.monsterslayer.com/jeep
 
#14 ·
Air conditioner trick for the novice:

for those who do not own A/C tools, an old compressor out of a refrigerator will pull a unit down. Just solder some hose connection on the suction line and it will work great till its burns up for lack of oil( couple years) then go swipe another. Everytime I see a refrigerator on the side of the road for trash I cut the compressor out of it.

brownbagg
 
#15 ·
/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif Right you are!!! My vacuum pump is out of an ancient cold-box and is a regular belt-driven unit. If I parked all the A/C equipped vehicles it has serviced since I got it in 1971, I could not park them in a supermarket parking lot. I have a nice two-cylinder unit under the bench here in the "Jeep Lab" that is on automatic, and has been the shop air supply since before any of my kids were born/wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gifand my oldest is almost 28/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif. If the truth were known, John, the rotary compressors are a little smoother clutching in and out than the big York sluggers. It makes it easier on everything...belts, idlers, etc... Luckily, I have an almost-full tank of F-12 left over from the "Old Days" to recharge the SNOJEEP with. /wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif

CJDave
Quadra-Trac modified by the crack moonguy/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif transfer case team.
 
G
#17 ·
is it just me or should CJDave start his own customizing shop? or be on TNN TRUCKS when the snojeep is ready....is can be called the tricked out MOON CREW CJ or something like that? or maybe Dave can start his own TV show, called Daves World, and all us jeepers can watch him each week as he fixes up his CJ and we call all write down his notes.. oh well it could happen :)


(\/)ikey
1988 Wrangler Laredo 4.2L w/5spd Manual
1995 Wrangler 2.5L w/ 5spd Manual-dixie horn
 
#18 ·
/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif This CJ DOES sort of remind me of "This Old House"....where they do remodeling. And this whole project reminds me of a buddy who started out to replace the linoleum in the bathroom and well, the floor was rotten, and well, the bad stuff extended into the adjacent kitchen, and well, as long as we have to lift the cabinets, we'll just re-do the whole kitchen and the drains were all rotten so we'll replace them and as long as we have to dig up the yard anyway let's re-do the landscaping and........well, you get the idea. Jeep chick is beginning to wonder when she might actually DRIVE the SNOJEEP, since we missed this last winter, AND the winter before that. All we were going to do was repair a few holes in the floor and rework the Quadra-Trac/wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gifWe could, however, write a book about: "Re-Smogging Your Outa-State Jeep", In terms of pure difficulty, THAT was the worst, losing our nice, illegal, Edelbrock 4BBL and carb/wwwthreads_images/icons/frown.gif, MAKING parts because there aren't any, and loading all the stuff on top of that previously clean 304/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif So far the thing we like the best is our aftermarket floor heater/center console/shifter group./wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif

CJDave
Quadra-Trac modified by the crack moonguy/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif transfer case team.
 
#20 ·
/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif Dave, you're not fooling me!!/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif You are having a GREAT time building that CJ-7.....Afterall, you could've gone out and bought another new Grand Cherokee for Vicki./wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif
 
#21 ·
/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif We actually got as far as driving Jeeps(YJs) in the spring of '96, and almost bought one, but didn't because well,....we were going to be living down on the flats and not in snow. HOWEVER...we ended up living in Vickie's mountain home after all, and renting my big home in Modesto and here was Vickie with a Pontiac Grand Am/wwwthreads_images/icons/frown.gifand no Jeep, while I get a brand new ZJ/wwwthreads_images/icons/frown.gifVickie was NOT happy about that/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gifI tried to talk her into an XJ, but she wanted a Jeepie Jeep, and we could not get the 242 transfer case, so we went the other way and chose a Quadra-Trac instead/wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif

CJDave
Quadra-Trac modified by the crack moonguy/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif transfer case team.
 
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