1. If you have recently registered with a gmail email address, you must contact me, as gmail will not forward our confirmation email to you. Contact me and jim@trishieldperformance.com to complete your registration.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. In and effort to reduce the spam on the site, several years ago I had went to a program where I manually approve each and every new registration. This approval gives you full access to the site, to pictures, and to post, among other things. To be able to enjoy the full potential of the board for you, you need to be fully registered.. and that's easy.. Just send an email to me at jim@trishieldperformance.com and I will verify your registration. This policy will remain in effect indefinitely, as it has completely eliminated the bad actors from our site, who would spam and hack it, once they gained access. Thanks JW
    Dismiss Notice
  3. The "Group Buy" for the 1967-68 Deluxe Steering wheel recasting is now officially "Open". Now is the time to start sending in the wheels. The latest date that the wheels must be received by Kochs is 31 March 2025 The cost for each wheel is $750. The only "up front cost" is your shipping the wheel. If you send in more than one wheel, each additional wheel will cost $700. Shipping and insurance to Kochs and return shipping will be extra. You will be contacted by Teresa to make payment for the wheel(s) and return shipping and insurance when your wheel(s) is complete. The shipping will be factored on your delivery address and insurance. I will be sending the contact information all of you have sent me to Teresa at Kochs. Send in your wheels, horn pad and hardware and paint color sample if applicable. Please include: First and Last Name Shipping Address Phone number email address V8Buick "Member Name" Wheel Color (SEE THE BOTTOM FOR WHEEL COLOR) Pease read the "shipping to Kochs" below. There are two addresses. One for USPS Mailing One for FedEx and UPS shipping You can use USPS/Mail, UPS or FedEx to send in your core. Use the appropriate address depending on what service you use to ship. If you use USPS/Mail ship to: Koch's P.O. Box 959 Acton, CA 93510 Attn: Teresa If you use UPS or FedEx ship to: Koch's 7650 Soledad Canyon Road Acton CA 93510 Attn: Teresa Kochs Contact: Teresa (661) 268-1341 customerservice@kochs.com Wheel Color If you wheel is Black, you can list that in your information you send in with your wheel. For colored wheels, please contact Teresa about specifics for wheel color if you do not send in a color sample to match. Please contact me if you have any questions. Thank you to everyone for your participation in making this a reality. And "Thank You" Jim Weise, for allowing and facilitating this project! Michael .................... to remove this notice, click the X in the upper RH corner of this message box
    Dismiss Notice

After market A/C options for '68 GS400 w/factory air

Discussion in 'The Big Chill' started by cardave, May 31, 2019.

  1. NZ GS 400

    NZ GS 400 Gold Level Contributor

    Maybe I am missing something but I can't see how it would hurt the value or desirability of the car by putting in the aftermarket system. If all the OEM components are saved, they could always be reinstalled.

    My car is factory air and the system needs at least as much work as yours. I am going for a Classic Auto Air system. I am storing my original components.
    As far as my research shows, the only mods to the car may be drilling some extra holes in the firewall. Maybe not even that. There are also adapters that make using the factory controls and vents possible.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2019
  2. cardave

    cardave Active Member

    @NZ GS 400 Are you going with a kit from Classic Auto Air? Or ordering ala carte components?

    -On Originalair.com, I stumbled across this: https://originalair.com/68-72-pontiac-lemans-ultimate-engine-compartment-upgrade-kit-134a-stage-3
    and am wondering if this would work on my '68 GS assuming I can get the correct compressor bracket from one of the members on this forum. It appears that this upgrade kit allows you to keep the factory vacuum climate control setup and under dash heater box.

    -The issue I'm running into in my reading is that I can't seem to find a parallel condenser that is a bolt in replacement for a '68 so as to hook up the factory hoses, if I wind up trying to resurrect my old system.
     
  3. 436'd Skylark

    436'd Skylark Sweet Fancy Moses!!!!!


    So couple things- installing a vintage air system is a bolt in kit. But its a huge project. You will be removing the right fender and hood and gutting your dash to remove the old system. The potential for collateral damage to paint is huge. You'll have 40-50 hours into it easy and $2500 bucks for the kit alone.

    Second if the system was charged in 95 it is not unreasonable for it to be empty nearly 25 yrs later.

    Third it will cost you less than 50 bucks to take it somewhere and have them pull a vacuum on it. It may very well pass the test and only need recharging.

    If it fails its very easy to put some dye in and fill it with compressed air to find the leak.

    You are looking to spend 2500 bucks to avoid 2-3 hours of diagnosing time. It makes no sense to me!?


    At the very least diagnose the factory system and get a price on fixing it!
     
  4. Daves69

    Daves69 Too many cars too work on

  5. cardave

    cardave Active Member

    @436'd Skylark - Agreed. I need to see what I'm dealing with first.

    @Daves69 - I missed that one by a country mile!

    Thanks guys!
     
  6. NZ GS 400

    NZ GS 400 Gold Level Contributor

    They will put together something for me if the kit won't work. I still need to finalize my plans. As had been pointed out, it is a big install job if you have to disassemble your car to do it. My car is completely disassembled at the moment, so that is a huge factor to consider of course.

    The points made regarding trouble shooting your existing system make very good sense to me. See if you can get your factory system to work first! Good luck.
     
  7. cardave

    cardave Active Member

    So I thought I would chime in with an update on my A/C adventures. I took several peoples advice and am trying to revive the original system, since all of the parts are there and also give everyone a few laughs along the way. Here is what I have done so far:
    -Removed A/C compressor to drain out old oil (unscrewed drain plug and nothing came out! Compressor is not noisy so still hopeful).
    -Rented flush gun from AutoZone, purchased A/C flush from Amazon and flushed out evaporator, condenser, and hoses. (Just a small bit of old oil came out, but otherwise nothing shocking.)
    -Installed new green seals everywhere (previous "restoration" folks simply just put old A/C parts back on the car as several connections were either missing o-rings, or only a fourth of an old o-ring was left on, plus no oil in the system).
    -Installed new receiver dryer and added 134 compatible oil to the system.
    -Adjusted POA valve screw
    -Pulled vacuum on the system for a little over an hour. Then shut pump off and let car sit for 2 hours and system still held vacuum. Yippee!
    ---Time now to add freon and see what we've got. Start car, turn fan switch on, notice no blower motor working. Look under hood and see smoke coming from back firewall area and sure enough, blower motor decided to take a dump right then.

    So after removing hood and R/F fender (this was fun), old blower motor is out and new one from OPGI is on the way.....
    Last of the funny stories here: Before removing R/F fender, I had this "mystery" wire laying in fender well. Couldn't figure out where it went as nothing was missing a connection and this brown wire was not listed in the FSM. Once I had the fender off, I saw that it was attached to the one of the blower motor hold down bolts and it appears that someone was trying to ground the blower motor. The bad part was that this wire had power when the fan switch was on, most likely due to the shorting out of the blower motor!

    That's it for now, stay tuned!

    Dave
     
    12lives and matt68gs400 like this.
  8. cardave

    cardave Active Member

    Well, guess what, new blower motor isn't working after plugged in and verifying that I have power to the motor. I also took a test light and touched the bolts that hold the blower motor in place and they lit up my test light. I poked around and realize that I'm missing the ground strap from the block to the firewall.

    Remembering that the R/F fender is off the car and the small negative ground wire is not attached, and missing the ground strap to the firewall, do you all think that is enough to not provide proper ground for the blower motor?

    Besides the 2 ground wires mentioned above, are there any other factory ground straps on a 68 GS 400? I'm not seeing anything in the FSM.

    Thanks in advance,

    Dave
     

Share This Page