Air con options
 

I'm considering fitting AC during my rebuild, but the factory option seems a bit pricey to me.

John (Phantom 13) went his own way for about half the price, could you give us a rundown of what parts you used and how?
Anyone else?

Rich

I used the climate control components from the Rover Stirling donor, mating it to the Fiat heater that came with the Vortex kit. I extensivly modified the heater unit and made fibre glass cases for the evaporator etc to fit the car. It was cheap as all the parts came from the donor except for a couple of leaking compressors. It worked well.

Any chance of some pics Chris? What did you do for lines up the chassis?

Cheers,
Rich

Hi Rich,
http://zombeh.dyndns.org/~chris/Aircon1.JPG
http://zombeh.dyndns.org/~chris/aircon2.jpg

These pictures only show the final installation. My installation was quite complex and time consuming but it works. I filled the air intake hole under the bonnet and made new holes in the inner skin of the front nearside wing so air comes in between the inner and outer wheel arches, the air is then ducted into the Rover fan assembly (small mods to actuating controls for it to fit) which is mounted inside the car under the dash (just fits). The air is then ducted forward to the evaporator which is mounted and sealed in a large hole in the bulkhead. Under the bonnet another duct was constructed to take the cold air to the Fiat heater unit. I had to modify the heater unit by bringing the controls out the other side to allow linkages to be made to connect to the electronic servo units from the Rover. All ducts and covers were constructed in fibreglass. By carefully annealing the aluminium pipes from the donor I re-bent them to fit the car which meant the receiver and pressure switch was mounted on the chassis under the front off side wing next to the condenser. I had the two pipes to the compressor lenthened with high pressure rubber pipes by a local contractor, I ran these down the centre of the chassis. Finaly I fitted the fan driven thermistor in the dash by the drivers left knee. Ifitted the climate controls in my centre dash.

Thanks Chris, I'm hoping the pics help explain things when I can see them..
How much did they charge for lengthening your pipes? I think I'll skip the climate control function and control it manually whihc should make it a case of just sourcing the parts..

Rich

Sorry faulty filenames, try these:
http://zombeh.dyndns.org/~chris/DSCF0019.JPG

http://zombeh.dyndns.org/~chris/DSCF0020.JPG

£45 for the two.

Thanks Chris :-) I'll have to look out for a car being broken now!

Prices for Phantom air con bits seem quite resonable for the "off the shelf" items ie. condenser, evaporator, drier, trinary switch and themo switch and the pipes are not expensive for made to measure items. Reconditioned compressor is reasonable as well.
O.K. the bracket and manifold might be a bit pricey but lets face it we are paying for one off individual machined parts with no chance of volume discount.
In my case I bought the conderser, evaporator, pipes, drier and switches because my engine already had the compressor fitted (different to the 827) so I just had the pipes sliced onto the existing pipes. If your engine already has the compressor mounted then it should be easy to use that.
The Phantom condenser and drier were also cheaper than replacements for my Mondeo when they were changed about 2 years ago and I was told that these are regular service items !

On a related note has anyone got any circuit diagrams for the Phantom trinary switch and thermostat ?

circuit diagrams are classified ken ;)

im just trying to work it out from the mgf ones and mk1 800 ones. decided to scrap the rovers ATC now, as the mgf heater flaps work in the wrong order so going for the in car pc controlled climate control instead.

Ed,
circuit diagram for my air con and cooling fans. This is using Phantom air con thermostat and trinary switch and the relay module from a Rover 600 deisel (located under a cover plate under the carpet of the pasenger side floor). Because they are inside the car they are nice and clean and don't get wet - one I tried from later 800 was really manky and didn't work and one from 400 with air con was split and full of water though that might have happened in the scrap yard.