Deleting my Air Conditioning

[sherpafish]

So the car my girlfriend bought (89 Jetta TD) came with a non-funtioning A/C. Great! We live in temperate Vancouver and don't use it- and don't want the drain on efficiency anyway.
My question is: How do I trim down all the parts and still make sure the engine isn't feeding power into a non-functioning/non-existant A/C?
Unfortunatly, this is "my" first car and I don't even know what half the stuff under the hood is named, let alone how to find/remove it. I have mechanical ability, but so far it's been limited to Mountain Bikes!
If anybody does have any advice, kindegarten-speak would be appreciated.

Here's a pic of what's under the hood, (note the shiny steel on the block- got jiggy with some 200 grit the other day.) can any of the visible stuff go away?

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.ca/sherpafish/C ... "><img></a>

[JAMES ADKINS]

Just disconnect wire going to compressor and then theres no way to activate it.I like the KISS principle of not overcomplicating things.Good luck with your auto and incidently you guy's up north really come out good in summer (it's 100 plus most days here but we don't freeze a s bad as you guy's in the winter.Anyways life a tradeoff it seems.later

[duffer]

I, too, am in the process of removing mine, completely,
and replacing it with a stock heater, but you may not want
to get into all that.

To remove the assembly, it involves unbolting the dash,
and removing much of the lower dash, unbolting the
heater/ac assembly (three bolts on the engine firewall
and several bolts/nuts inside the car)detaching the air ducts
and pulling the unit out from under the dash.

The condenser is located, and bolted to. the front
of the radiator. You have to cut come piping to remove.

This is just a general summary of a rather lengthy process,
which you may not want to get into, but it does eliminate a
lot of redundant weight and these little cars need all the
help they can get.

[bscutt]

bear in mind a functioning AC will provides dehumidification for the windshield on those nasty rainy days, a very nice safety feature. Typically these AC systems become nonfunctional because an O-ring has failed or other slow leaks have caused all the freon to leak out. Once the level gets low enough the compressor won't engage due to the low presure switch doing its job.

30 years ago I would have gone along with removing the AC but not anymore, too many benefits to me.

But if you really want to do it to save weight and make more room under the hood, you should remove the compressor which may involve significant work changing brackets and pulleys, locating different belts, etc. removing the condensor is also a pain. Personanally I'd just unplug the compressor (it won't cut on anyway if it's out of freon) and just leave it alone. The next owner might like to have working AC and removing it makes that very difficult.

[82vdub]

bscutt x2.

I too agree that actually removing the AC compressor will result in a lot of work that IMO, isn't needed. The alternator belt runs off the AC compressor. To remove the AC compressor and get the alternator to line up to a pully will result in changing the IP bracket (I believe the whole bracket) and probably getting another alternator with the correct pulley offset - or then again, maybe just a correct pully on the alternator. A lot of work just for removing a belt going around a pully.

If the AC system works, keep it on the car. You may not want it, but to me, I'd pay a lot more for a VW with working AC (or one with AC on it) than one without.

[libbybapa]

And then there's that odd chance that you might have the car in 10 years when you decide to take a family trip to Florida, Las Vegas, Phoenix or L.A...

Andrew

[tylernt]

I deleted my A/C compressor to simplify the belts and I'm glad I did it. Yes it is a bit complicated to find or make the right brackets (the pre-1985 Rabbit non-A/C Bracket is best) but you remove all of the belt squealing problems and reduce weight (which improves efficiency and makes your motor mounts last longer).

Now if there were a good single-belt serpentine conversion out there, I might consider keeping the A/C. But with V-belts -- I'd ditch it.

[sherpafish]

Ok, thanks for the help everyone. I'll be flipping through my Bentley Manual to figure out what you're all talking about!

I didn't realize that I'd start a debate! Keep it coming, I'm learning here.

[Fatmobile]

I converted my Golf to non-AC... using the 90 amp AC alternator,... and there is only one kind of alternator bracket for an A2,... AC or not.
I rotated the alternator down and ground off where ever it touched:

... so the alternator could rotate down farther and the belt could be shorter.


The stock non-AC alternator has it's mounting holes 180 degrees apart, on opposite sides of the alternator. The AC alternator in you car has it's mounting points about 60 degrees apart.
I used a bracket to move the mounting hole closer to the 180 position:

The green arrow points to the adjuster bar, everything else is mounted solidly to the alternator,... it's an alternator adjuster from a '91 Golf gasser,... digi II.

A side view shows the washers used to mount it square with the alternator:


Here's a picture of it on the car:

The alternator shop helped me pick a pully with the right offset.
It ended up being a double pully from,... I think it was a '93-'95 Ford truck. I can't remember the part #.
A cheap, easy conversion to non-AC.
Sounds like you could sell some of the AC parts on here.

[duffer]

I have a dumb question but, please, no pointing
at your computer screen and laughing.

What is that little black box, with the pigtail attached
to a spade terminal on the back of the above
alternator? (Near the green arrow)

A while back, I bought a 90-amp alternator, nearly
new and going cheap, and I've just noticed that it's
missing one of those.

What's it for and can I use one off another alternator?

Thank you for any information you might have.

[tylernt]

It's an optional noise suppressor. It's basically a capacitor that smooths out electrical spikes. You should be able to pull one off another alternator of the same amperage and it should work. Actually it may still work even if the amperage is different, not sure.

Then again, if you don't notice any noise in your radio (particularly AM), you probably don't need one.

[82vdub]

Even if you have one of these on your alternator and have noise issues in your radio, you can have a larger capacitor installed to help supress the noise. I have a large capacitor tie-wrapped to the back of my alternator as the small internal one wasn't cutting it anymore.

[duffer]

Thank you very much for your responses.

It's reassuring to know that the alternator
will still function and my car won't explode
without one of those. I was worried that the
lack of this fixture might have been the
reason this alternator was so cheap.

Thanks again for your help.

[sherpafish]

Well, I'm am certainly getting schooled in alt and a/c information.

Fatmobile.... wow. Thank you for the pictorial help. I think maybe I didn't know what I was getting into here. I kinda thought I could just pull a few parts out and it would all be good. Obviously not. Alt-mods and everything. You rock.

I found my Bentley to be fairly useless for this job. Anybody know a website that shows what each a/c part is and where it's usually found? I don't want to go pulling the wrong hoses off or anything!

[JRM]

fat, thanks for posting your fix again, very popular- hey FYI your timeing belt looks scary in the bottom picture