Airconditioning - it's more than just cold air.

[bonnevista]

I've been on a little journey with my Pontiac's aircondition and happily, it's ended with having cold A/C in my car.  Now, if only summer would arrive, perhaps I would get a chance to use it.  Anyway, here's the story...

In December 2011, I was driving back from Albury, when I notice a burning smell.  I pulled over, lifted the hood and noticed the hub/clutch assembly on the A/C compressor was smoking.  Further examination showed that the A/C clutch was slipping, so I had to make the rest of the jouney with no A/C.  I put this in the 'too hard basket' until after Christmas.

Fast forward to January 2012.  After doing a little research and talking to a few people, on the recomendation of fellow Pontiac enthusiast, Geoff Swavley (I've known Geoff for about 30 years), I contacted John Wallace of Wallace Automotive in Castle Hill, Sydney ph. 98940366 (yes, I'm giving him a plug).  John just does car A/C - he's not an auto electrician that does A/C on the side.  I took the car to him and he went through the whole system.

He supplied a rebuilt compressor and a new expansion valve (which he had on the shelf).  The expansion valve was the reason the clutch started slipping.  It seized, which created too much head pressure in the compressor which the clutch couldn't overcome, so it slipped.

He also flushed out the lines, condensor and evaportor.  He said he normally uses about 1 litre to flush out a car A/C system, but mine was so putrid, it took 5 litres.  (BTW, he wasn't BSing me.  I was there for the whole job and saw what he did)

Everything was then reassembled, gassed up and tested.  It worked great - BUT, John said to me that the POA valve would probably fail sooner rather than later and would have to be addressed.

Ok, so what's the POA valve??  I won't bore everyone with the details, but it's a valve that allows refrigerant to bypass the evaporator when it gets too cold, so it doesn't freeze up.  GM used the POA valve until the mid '70's and after that, used a cycling clutch system, which is less prone to failure.

So, fast forward again a couple of weeks of ice cold A/C and the POA valve seizes.  I know I have to find a replacement POA valve, so I start looking online and come across this company.
   http://www.classicautoair.com/
They can supply me with a rebuilt POA valve for $220 delivered to my door.  They can only supply a recoed unit, as nobody makes new ones anymore.  I look online a little more and find this company.
   http://autoacsolutions.com/
These guys make a cycling clutch conversion that's a direct bolt in to replace the POA valve.  Their part is brand new and is $140 delivered to my door.  I give John the A/C guy a call and ask him what he thinks.  He advises me to go with the cycling clutch set up.
   http://www.marketworks.com/fullView.asp?sf=y&nb=1&id=18247065&img=http://images.marketworks.com/hi/61/60963/poa_eliminator_dsc03893_w.jpg
This photo shows the POA valve (upper) and the cycling clutch upgrade (lower).

I buy the cycling clutch valve and John fits it for me.  I now have cold, trouble free A/C in my car.

As I said earlier, I'm giving Wallace Automotive a plug for the work he did and I will happily go back to him in the future.  He knows his stuff and does quality work.

I love a happy ending.