Air conditioning question

[Decolliber]

If I am not going to use my air conditioning (too expnesive to fix), would there be any gain in removing the compressor drive belt? Does it draw any power off the engine if the a/c is not on?

[Jdub]

The belt does cause a small amount of drag; more if you engage the magnets by turning your A/C on, which everyone should do at least once a month.

If you plan on pulling the belt, you might as well pull the system. For A/C, you are either maintaining it in "sleep" mode by turning it on once in a while, or ignoring it and eventually having a compressor that is no longer working, regardless of the condition of the rest of the system.

On my '78 SC, they threw the cooler under the decklid. I have often wondered how much more air I'd get if I removed that darn thing.

Jw