Warmin Up so been working on the AC

[JD's Toy]

Just keeping everyone appraised of the wagon status. Starting to really heat up here in South Carolina so this weekend I took on the project of getting the AC going.

Yestrday a buddy helped me replace the compressor cause it was leaking. How in the heck does that belt tensioner on the idler pulley work? We tried to loosen it up as much as possible and it hardly provided any slack in the belt at all. Got the belt off and on, but not easily. MaybeI'm missing something on the way to adjust that belt between AC, smog pump, and crank?

Also replaced the accumulator and the orifice, as well as all of the o-rings in the system. Dropped it off yesterday to get refilled and the guy called at 4:45 saying I still had a leak in the system and he'd call me back today. From what he was saying it sounded like it was leaking from the switch on the accumulator, so hopefully that's all it is an it's an easy fix. REALLY hoping to have the AC going for my drive in to work Monday.

Orifice was the worst part, looks like it'd been in there since 1986 and really didn't want to come out...

Never really cared about AC before, and none of my other cars have it, but now the wife and I have a 2 week old baby girl, and she'll appreciate it.

[Tiggie]

Yestrday a buddy helped me replace the compressor cause it was leaking. How in the heck does that belt tensioner on the idler pulley work? We tried to loosen it up as much as possible and it hardly provided any slack in the belt at all. Got the belt off and on, but not easily. MaybeI'm missing something on the way to adjust that belt between AC, smog pump, and crank?

They have two different kinds of tensioners. My car works by loosing the bolt on the back of the tensioner and moving it with a ratchet (there's a square hole to put it).

I had to replace the orfice tube on my '82 as well. Are you converting to R134a?

[JD's Toy]

yeah i put a 1/2 inch drive socket in there and released the tension on the belt somewhat, but really didn't relieve a lot of pressure... probably just me.

it's been at the AC shop for a full day and a half now. I HATE having to depend on other people to do work. Called them a minute ago and they have confirmed that it'll hold vacuum, but haven't actually gotten around to charging it with R134a (prior owner converted it...)

I told them to just yank out the pressure switch for now and I'll troubleshoot it later. Actually went down there to look at it and told them to throw an o-ring on it, but they claim that won't work. I'll try myself tonight or tomorrow or just wrap the threads on that switch with some teflon tape. Nice thing is the schrader valve on the accumulator which allows you to work on the pressure switch and not loose any R134a.

So that's an entire day of potential time to work on it down the drain waiting on the "pro's"... originally they said it'd be done yesterday.

frustrating...

[86VickyLX]

Yours is an '86 right? On my tensioner for the a/c and stuff, there were two bolts that held it in place. Gotta loosen them both.

[87LongroofCP]

That's the southern garages for ya, It's not easy getting quality work done here. When you find a good shop, that's reasonable, honest and qualified, stick with them. I hate having someone else do work for me.

[gadget73]

2 bolts on the tensioner. One is shared with the compressor itself, one is behind the mounting plate. The one you access from the back is what actually holds the tension, the upper one is just the pivot point.

[86VickyLX]

It's a pain in the ass if you have big hands like me, I kinda got scratched up, but if you can wiggle your hand in there without too much problems, you can get it off, I used a socket wrench with a 14mm socket iirc. If you want to check for sure which size the bolt is, the bolts on the front of the plate Gadget is talking about, should be the same size as on the one in the back holding the tensioner.

[ss_mini14]

Called them a minute ago and they have confirmed that it'll hold vacuum, but haven't actually gotten around to charging it with R134a

don't trust a vaccuum test. i've seen too many a/c systems hold a vacuum indeffinitely but blow out all the refrigerant within a few hours or less. once i had a cavalier that held vacuum for an hour but leaked out nearly 3 lbs of R12 in a matter of seconds once the system was pressurized. also i have a new robinair recovery machine at work that has a "leak test" option that seems to be more of a crap shoot than anything. make sure they shoot some UV dye in there to be on the safe side.

[Glen]

I have the tensioner with the two bolts, can I replace it with the spring one? I used to have a 91 GM and it had the string tensioner. my 89 has the two bolt one.

[gadget73]

The boxes all have the 2 bolt tensioner that I'm aware of. Never seen a spring tensioner on a 5.0/5.8 Panther.

[Glen]

You may be right. I sold the 91 about 4 years ago, so I may be wrong about the spring tensioner.