Can someone pop the breather off their Air Conditioned car and tell me where the wire comes from that energizes the idle solenoid when the AC is switched on? I think mine has been taped back into the loom, and I need to locate it to hook it back up. Also, tell the color of the wire if you would. A picture would be great too. Thanks, Tom
Tom, in 1972, that idle solenoid was an anti dieseling solenoid, it had nothing to do with the A/C. The solenoid was energized whenever the key was in RUN, so you could run a wire from the fuse box if need be. You could also use it for the A/C if you wanted, but you would need to wire it into the switched side of the compressor clutch apply.
Thanks for the reply. I didn't think the wiring harness had been butchered, so that explains why I didn't see a wire coming from the compressor or elsewhere.
What did Buick do to compensate for the compressor load on the engine? I have a solenoid wired in on my '71 350.
My 72 non AC looks like this. Also has trans control sol besides the idle stop. Have disconnected and eliminated both. Both have gray wires coming from harness along passenger valve cover. Both are joined to another single gray with green (I think) stripe. The single spade is the idle stop connector and the double spade is the trans control so. The tcsol cuts of vacuum to distributor advance in first and second gear I read in manual. An early attempt at emission control supposedly, so have bypassed it and hook up directly carb vacuum. edit: BTW neither devise shows up on the colorized schematic I got for the car. Might be in service manual. Wonder why?
Got Torque? Seriously, though, I thought that the idle speed setting was alone supposed to be high enough to handle the compressor load when the A/C was turned on.
Without compensating for the compressor load, my 350 runs really rough at idle when the compressor is engaged. I found a solenoid and hooked it up to the compressor wire, works like a charm.
If your engine starts running rough when the AC is engaged something is wrong. Yes it will bring the idle down a bit, but the engine should not run rough. The 4 and 6 cylinder engines needed help with an idle compensator, not so much with the V-8's
