308 AC Replacement Parts???

Verrell,

I did all those things and the total cost was less than $500 for all parts, labor, etc. The flush was not a solvent based flush and I used an oil which will work in R134 where R12 is present ( I believe you pointed me towards this PAG maybe??? or was it POE, I keep getting them mixed up). New Mercedes dryer which fit fine.

Either way, Steve Carr supplied all the parts for me and he was aware that I was converting an old system and he advised I do all the stuff you just mentioned.

Vacuum was pulled, then stopped to see if it would hold. It did for ~15-minutes with NO change in pressure. Then it was turned back on for 45-minutes to remove all moisture. Then the system was charged and it blew nice and cold.

The only thing I have not done, which Steve Advised I do was re-wire the AC switch to turn on BOTH fans and not just the passenger side fan. He said this would help improve cooling during low speed driving and give me a slight drop in air temp. as well as allow a little more refrig. in the system (since the car obviously cannot be moving while we were charging it, we were at the limit of what we could blow into it).

Note that the later cars had a low P cut off switch built into the dryer (the new drier has a port for this) but my car had a switch down stream of the dryer.

Rebuilding is an option, but even Carl Rose who wrote the AC article on the tech. forums on f - t a l k said he would advice against rebuilding. They just never seem to be the same after a rebuild. Buy new or retro to a different system (note that Steve had the York - but with the wrong clutch so you'll have to remove yours - new price was considerablly less than NAPA, who's website now asks $399 for a York New compressor)

 

Yes the system will cool better with R-12 as that's what it was originally designed to do. R-12 operatates at a lower pressure

The Aspera compressor is a direct switch out for the York. The York was built under license in Italy and badged Apera. Note that a Sanden Rotary compressor is OEM for Euro cars. I have no idea why this is but such is life. You can see it at the owners.ferrari.co.uk site on their isoview drawings. I priced brackets to make a OEM like switch but decided $50 for a adapter was better than $400 for the Ferrari brackets. I have a drawing of them somewhere. I suppose you could fabricate a new bracket to look like the OEM but it's really no necessary (again, unless you want to show the car).

Replacing the hoses with Aeroquip is not necessary. Replacing the hoses with new refrigerant hose is more than adequate but it is a MAJOR PITA to do this.

The clutch from your Apera should bolt right up to a new York unit. As I recall the York unit is black and the Aspera is silver so buy yourself some engine silver paint and have fun.

 

I did the flush. Poured the stuff in a used air to blow it thru the system and catch it at the other end. Came out clean after a few blow thru's.

The PN is BMW unit - (not Merc. my mistake) UAC Part# RD0954T. UAC was the brand of dryer Steve had at his shop. I'm sure it's a replacement and not OEM. Note that it has 3-brackets on it to mount the unit on a BMW. I simply cut them off, painted over it with flat black and it fit just fine. List price was $89 and Steve gave it to me for $39.

 

It was kept under Vac for almost an hour to remove the moisture before I charged it. That should be done regardless.