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If the A/C system on your car is very similar to my '71, you're in for a real "treat". My '71 has removable side vents, so there is some access to that area. And even with that, it almost took an 'act of God' to get the large retaining nuts on that VIR to break loose. In fact, I never could break the upper one loose--until I cut the refrigerant tubing on top of the VIR to get the whole d@m# thing out. I needed a vise and a 3 foot breaker bar to get that nut loose!! After 40+ years, that nut had almost welded itself to the fitting.
You asked for someone with that experience. I can only provide my only effort at swapping that thing out. I surely hope that your experience is better; but, be prepared!!
Wish you the best on your project.
P.S. The rest of the job was relatively ease...for working on a 46 year-old vehicle on parts that had never been removed since it was initially built.
Corvette Central on eBay had the best price on the VIR eliminator, $155. Also bought the condenser on eBay for $88. The compressor and hoses I sourced locally for lowest price. Went with the new style aluminum compressor. It's a direct bolt in replacement for the big A6 compressor.
I replaced my VIR with one years ago, the biggest issue I had is the bracket that held the VIR did not hold the Eliminator so the weight hanging on caused the Evap to leak latter. I then replaced the hole assembly with the newer style of the 78+ system making sure i supported the accumulator. Just saying if you change to the eliminator then make sure you support it
Last edited by redwingvette; Apr 28, 2018 at 06:35 PM.
OK, VIR eliminator is in.
I'm working on a '73 and I have to tell you, this was WAY easier than I thought it was going to be. Real time, about 45 minutes and I took my time.
Good tip: I test fit every connection first, all the way to finger tight, without the O ring before assembly as the lines all need a little tweaking. This made it much easier when I lubed and installed the O rings and tightened the connections.
Easiest if you remove the coolant overflow tank first of course.
There was actually a reasonable amount of room to jockey the wrenches around down there to remove the old VIR.
The new accumulator has a movable top hose mount so you can rotate it to the correct position for your car. This really helps.
The new accumulator is also a little larger in diameter than the original VIR so the 3/8 screw that holds the clamp around the body would no longer work. No problem, I just replaced it with a 1/4" X 3" bolt and nut. Tightened right up (see first pic). This part was easiest from underneath the car. Everything else I did from up top.
You have to do a bit of jiggling to fit the body of the new accumulator into the mounting hoop and the large evaporator outlet fitting at the same time but IT WAS NOT THAT DIFFICULT. Again, my wrenches fit in this area without too much trouble to tighten the outlet connection (see second pic).
Then the accumulator is mounted and quite sturdy but the evaporator inlet line and the small oil bleed line are still loose (see third pic).
Next I installed the eliminator block. This connects to the evaporator inlet line and the small oil bleed line. Tip: install the oil bleed line first, it is easiest to bend around so you can line up the evap. inlet connection. Again, I did this without any O rings and just finger tight. When I removed it, it was very easy to install the O rings, reconnect and tighten both connections (see fourth pic).
Then I installed the cycling switch. There are three ports to choose from. All the same. This was a no brainer. I chose the one facing outwards (see fifth pic).
Plugged in the harness plug (see sixth pic) but I'm not going to wire it until my compressor is in place so I can choose the cleanest place to splice into the harness.
So all that's left to do down here is install my two new hoses when they arrive. One into the top of the new accumulator and the other into the eliminator block. Both spots are pretty accessible so I don't anticipate an problems there either.
All in all a pretty easy job. I'll update when my new compressor and hoses arrive.
Getting ready to install VIR Eliminator Kit in my 76 from Original Air.
Anyone have any experience that I can start a conversation with?
Thanks
Sunny
I'm sure it must be possible. I have an early 77 and I set out to do this, with the engine removed. I finally gave it up as a bad job, tore the whole damn thing out and replaced it with a Vintage Air unit (still a lot of work). To be honest, part of my decision to abandon the VIR eliminator was because I began to doubt how well it would work. Vintage Air
I've been running the VIR eliminator/134 conversion for 3 months now in mostly triple digit ambient temps here in the desert. I have had zero problems with it.
So, considering the extreme environment the car is continuously exposed to here, I'd have to give this conversion a big thumbs up. I'm sure anyone here will be in a milder climate and should see even better results than I have.
The correct tools and a little patience made all the difference.
I've been running the VIR eliminator/134 conversion for 3 months now in mostly triple digit ambient temps here in the desert.
Greg,
Would you please share some performance info on your set up? Specifically, what are both your coldest and average (meaning: running down the road) center vent temps? I would like to compare your numbers to the numbers of my stock set up which still utilizes the original V.I.R. and R12.
Hi Dave, Glad to help. Running down the road, engine temp around 200, fan on Hi, center vent temps are about 48 degrees, which feels ice cold with the ambient temps of 110-112. Cabin is very comfortable. Over 115 and up to 120 the performance will drop off some but I think that is expected with just about any system here. If I take the car over to Los Angeles or the beach cities where the summer temps are in the upper 80's the performance is much better with lower engine temps and vent temps. I can easily run the fan on Low over there and have the same comfort level in the cabin. Our environments are completely different so I don't believe there will be any correlation between my performance here in the desert and your performance in Indianapolis where the summer temps are down in the 80's.
Greg
Thanks for sharing Greg! I was curious how the R134 performed with the V.I.R. eliminator kit. Yes, our weather is a night/day difference between you and I...but this summer the majority of temps have been more akin to the weather found in Jackson MS, with highs in the 90's and dew points in the 70's...think of it as "air you can wear"...you go outside and sweat like a marathon runner without even moving and never cool down! Real pleasant...
Your system does a great job of knocking those cabin temps down in that desert air. You get to look cool AND be cool all at the same time!!
My '71 has removable side vents, so there is some access to that area. And even with that, it almost took an 'act of God' to get the large retaining nuts on that VIR to break loose. In fact, I never could break the upper one loose--until I cut the refrigerant tubing on top of the VIR to get the whole d@m# thing out. I needed a vise and a 3 foot breaker bar to get that nut loose!! After 40+ years, that nut had almost welded itself to the fitting.
