Spark shower! Bye Bye A/C
 

Ever have one of those days?

First I missed out on a purchase in the classifieds while waiting for a response from the seller who, instead of answering me, sold it to someone else....:mad:

Second, while leaving work, out of the corner of my eye, I see a spark fall between my feet, then another one, then a couple more coming from the dash!

Turn around and pull the car into the electrical shop I run. Disconnect battery, feel under dash for heat. I then removed the A/C speed and temperature controller that was installed for the Dealer installed A/C. The wires running to it were all hot and getting black. Snip, snip, tape, tape drive home.

Yesterday the fan controller wasn't working right. Skipped a couple of speeds and would only run on full speed. The A/C is discharged and was destined to come out soon.

Well, tonight is the night. The whole system will be removed NOW!

Yikes! At least you stopped it before there was fire.

NOOOO fix it! AC is a wonderful thing!

Nice weight savings....makes it more tossable.......

You anti-a/c guys sure are amusing.

when you have mostly cold temps 8 months of the year it doesnt take much to make you anti a/c . Bring on the heat baby!

Engine compartment, passenger cabin, smugglers box and all wiring gone in 1 hour and 20 minutes!

Time for a sodee pop, then jack her up and remove the rest.... :)

I'm in Oregon, don't need no stinking A/C... :)

Behr fan and a switch will go back in for ventilation.

sure would be nice if they built in one little unit instead of spreading it all over the car ! I plugged all the holes frome the line clamps with rtv and made a block off plate for the front blower. Like it was never even there :)

Well, Must be getting old, or I'm slowing down because I'm not as mad... another 1.5 hrs at this.

1/2 the hoses are off the passenger side and the belly cooler is free , just have the rear fender heat exchanger, the drier and lots more hoses on the drivers side and I'll be done. :)

If I ever put some A/C back in, it needs to be designed better than this one, the whole car is wrapped in hoses!...

Don't forget to drop the engine and swap out the crankshaft pulley; it now has an unused groove and useless weight.:D

Well, it's 10:00 and it is done..... 4 and 1/2 hours start to finish, not bad for a 50 yr old!
Tools are put away, wheels are on and lug nuts torqued.
Big pile of used A/C parts on my bench.
I'm going to weigh it once I box it up just to see how much it all weighs.
Now I'm in my 50's it's easier to take stuff off the car than it is to lose weight personally! :)

Maybe tomorrow night if I'm bored.... :)

My car is now closer to the way the factory made it. I now have 2 accessories, A power heated drivers mirror and a rear defroster. That's it.


I'll post some pics in a while.

Anyone want an A/C system that leaks and wants to catch on fire?
Never mind, most people already have one of those. :)

I'm thinking the engine bay is nicer now.

Here's a few pictures of the engine and the pile of parts on my bench.

Sorry about the quality, cell phone pics.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1348810189.jpg

BIG Belly cooler!
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1348810213.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1348810236.jpg

Whenever I see the posts with the 'real men don't drive cars with A/C' theme I look to see where the OP lives.... Oh, Oregon. Well, I'd probably remove mine also then!!!

My R134 A/C ran for 4+ hours straight yesterday driving down from Atlanta (top down of course but it still cools nicely).

Chuck.H
'89 TurboLookTarga, 340k miles

What looks like a pile of junk , smells like a pile of junk...?
Don't need no stinkin' A/C ;) Mine came in (after coming out) at 32kg. That's 1/2 a small passenger. I kept the main blower though.

Now you can easily get to the tappets!

I have no AC and live in South Texas. Don't have a problem with it, I enjoy driving the car so much.

The evap fan will go back in the smugglers box with a switch on the dash to turn it on. It does blow air better than the factory fresh air one.

Southwest Florida and before that Albuquerque NM. No AC and no radio - the way a man was meant to drive!

Thanks for the knee slappers, gentlemen!

No AC, no heat, no power steering.......the way a sportscar should be.

Been driving mine all this summer wearing polo shirts and slacks to and from work 23 miles one way.

Happy to say there were no spark showers this morning going to work at 55F, top comes off for the 80F ride home. Less than a 1/4” of rain here since June and none coming. I really like the Targa in weather like this! :)

Took a look at the failed switch today. Made by Indak.
The terminals had come loose in the micarta board and had turned enough for the connectors to touch. The switch uses pressure against the mounting studs internally to make/break the connections. Age related failure is my guess.
Mine also has a rotary pot on it for min-max cooling mounted on the shaft.
I don't think I'll be finding a new one of these soon.

Here's a pic of a similar new one.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1348880712.jpg

Hah. Same switch in my BMW 2002. Also made by Indak. I replaced it about 5 years ago.

Pelican Parts - Product Information: 911-613-243-00-M100

How many years do you expect a switch to carry 12+ amps

I'm just going to keep posting these pictures as a safety reminder anytime I read a 911 a/c spark-burn story. My stock, unfused front condenser fan burst into flames while driving home from Pittsburgh. Unlike the rest of you, I'm pretty wimpy and enjoy staying cool in the heat. My stock a/c works really well other than the occasional fire:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...6E048C53FA.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...6E09FB59CC.jpg

True, what are the current ratings on your variable speed switch?

The switch you linked me to is close to mine, mine was a dual function switch with a rheostat and second rotary knob to control the cooling level. No console, dealer installed when car was brought over by PO.

The Kuehl Variable Speed Fan Switch can handle, with no issues, the normal loads
that are demanded through the thermostat. The Variable Speed Fan Controller Board, as well, can handle the normal loads demanded by the evaporator blower motor.

Bumping an old thread, I am having trouble tracing the last bit of AC harness. I want the wire that terminate in the smugglers box gone. I'm losing track of it under the dash near the factory alarm. Is this an easy harness to delete or is it bundled with other wires.

Trying to be patient and not cut anything :)

Well this is a blast from the past. Almost 3 years and I haven't regretted pulling it since.

Ayles, not sure about factory A/C wiring runs, seems they just added wires until it worked. :)
Where do you think it should go to or come from? What did it control?

Just spent an hour getting aggressive with it and got it out. Only made one cut at the ground, right at the connector since there was no way I could get in there with a wrench.

All that's left are some yellow wires on the drivers side that were plugged into the harness and a green wire that was plugged in as well. I assume just wrap them both up and call it good?

Here's a pic of the yellow wires.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1432014706.jpg

Spark shower! Bye Bye A/C
 

Make sure the thick yellow wire headed to the back of the car is plugged into the one coming from the back of the 6 pin plug as I believe it is your starter solenoid wire to pin one of the 14 pin connector at the rear fuse panel. If I'm seeing the picture correctly on my phone. :)
Others can be taped up.

The AC harness in the frunk had both green and yellow wires plugged into it just a foot or so from the fuse panel.

It looks like the Two yellow wires can be plugged back in without the AC harness. It was just a tap off the two, if that's the same yellow wire as the starter. Bentley has the starter showing in the AC wiring diagram. I just never would have thought the starter would be involved.

AC schematic is here

http://www.pelicanparts.com/911/911_Parts/Electrical/911_electrical_82SC_AC.jpg

I really enjoy my upgraded a/c. It was a very satisfying project.:)

Some better pics:
Frunk:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1432048889.jpg

Harness:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1432048911.jpg

I think I just hook up the two frunk wires, since they were pretty much hooked together before with just an additional wire going into the AC harness.