York compressor alignment ... ac observations

Hey all,

So I installed all the ac bits back on one of my 308's. We've had a bit of a heat wave and I must say the ac has been more than adequate. We've not been in the 100's though and humidity has been low. Something I noticed when sourcing all the components for the install was different superheat values for the thermal expansion valve. I ended up with a pretty high value and I can get ones with a lower value, but it made me wonder if that parameter has maybe somehow helped with the systems overall function. From what I've been reading it seems like a higher superheat value will ultimately make the condensor temp a bit hotter, which might in turn help the condensor get rid of heat a bit easier. I also went with R134 for now but flushed and filled the system with esther oil so I can go back to R12 if I need to.

Here's my main problem ... I've not been able to get the compressor aligned where I feel good about it. It seems to me it is sitting too far away from the engine. I tried moving some spacer shims around that are on top of the compressor to try and help but it seems like the bottom bracket ultimately forces it back to where I don't want it, and moving the shims never moves the compresor closer to the engine ... and I'm not sure I'm supposed to be moving shims for alignment period ... they might be more for raw belt tension so the actual idler/tensioner ends up in the proper place?

I still have the passenger gas tank out of this car and really would like to address all this before putting it back in. Has anyone else experienced this alignment issue? It's a rebuilt York unit that I had in stock from years ago. If I had to guess I would say the rebuilder cleaned up/machined the shaft which has a steep taper on it which would make the clutch drop on the unit further, moving the pulley out from the engine further. Right now the only real solution I can think of is to pull the brackets off and trim them a bit ... also thought about making some offset bushings out of nylon or something to go where the rubber bushings are in the bracket, but I think I want some kind of vibration isolation for the unit ... thoughts anyone?

cheers

 

Thanks for the input.

The thing that tipped me off to the alignment issue was that the belt seemed to be riding up one side of the pulley ... the side farthest from the engine I think. I can feel the top of the belt above the V groove on one side of the pulley vs. a little down on the other. This is definitely a Ferrari clutch/pulley. I've got a few of them around here and it seemed aligned perfectly on the old compressor. It was something I was looking at before starting the ac rehab because the "in stock" low hour compressor (off another car) always seemed out of alignment. I thought I had become smarter than it in the last 15 years since fighting it ... I guess not ... I just luv trying to use up inventory ... geeeez who doesn't right?

The other thing that makes the alignment problem obvious is the angle of the belt from the idler to the compressor. I spaced the idler out a bit and that seemed to get the belt off the one side of the V groove a bit ... it was much worse than described above before shimming the idler.

It sounds like the problem is really with this compressor so I don't think I want to machine the brackets. Looks like I'll be rebuilding the unit I took off the car. Thanks for the explanation and input.

So where do I buy the rebuild kit?

cheers

 

Thanks for the source on the York compressors.

I have a Sanden in stock with the bracket setup for 308#1 ... I just wasn't real happy with the adapter lines that got fabbed up to go from the original lines to the compressor. The charge ports were pretty difficult to get at. I was hopeful that putting the York on 308#2 going to be less painful but I might re-visit the Sanden again. When I looked at the Sanden sitting on the bench I started thinking about how I could machine/modify the clutch to have the proper belt profile ... which really swayed me back to the York. I have to admit though I never heard any belt slippage while I was running the Sanden compressor even though it was only for a short while.

Another issue I have with the Sanden is if I were to modify the clutch to fit the factory belt profile, would I be able to find the V belt with the right length? I recall asking one of my industrial suppliers and they acted like it was something wierd. Is that the case? If we're stuck with the standard belts definitely no reason to even think about modifying a clutch.

cheers