Bfenty

I've been working on getting my A/C up and running, and have hit a couple issues. First is the compressor appears to be dead-I'll deal with that at some point. The other is that the blower barely moves any air at all, despite sounding quite loud.

All speeds work, and are distinct from one another. If the resistor is bad, it is uniformly bad. Low pushes less air than medium, which is less than high, etc. However, while it sounds comparably loud to several other cars, barely any air comes out of the vents. If you hold your hand right over the vent, you can feel something very faint. Definitely wouldn't call it A/C, though...

Only thing I've done is manually shut the blend door on the heat, since the cable is rusted and doesn't move. I get no air, no matter which setting I use (MAX A/C, cool, vent, or heat).

My thought is that the blower motor is going bad-it doesn't look like it's in great shape. I will probably start by replacing that fairly soon as it's an easy swap and not expensive.

Would love to hear your thoughts on fixing this? Even if it's not COLD air, I'd like to at least get some air moving in the cab on a hot day.

xrav22

Check your vacuum line is connected to the 3 way connector and its connected to the intake. That is the power to switch vents. Forget about ac for now and you should try to get the vents working. vent is upper, defrost is window and heater is lower . under the radio are more vacuum lines and your cable connection. I did a r134 conversion last month and used a new compressor.

Bfenty

can you provide more detail? Where is this three way connector? And yes just getting vents working would be a great start.

xrav22

It could be on the othe side of diz
Here is the pick I was looking for

Bfenty

hmmm I don't think I have that at all on my car. Matter of fact, I think I have that vacuum line and it's just plugged off.

...crap. PO really did a number on this car. Is there a way to see if the vents are closed? Or what is their 'natural' state? Ie if they don't have a vacuum, are they closed?

WVZR-1

I believe that 1st of all you might check the voltage at the blower when high blower is commanded from the switch THEN jumper (RUNNING) B+ to the blower motor and see if there's a recognizable difference in blower performance. I'd think you could generally hear, feel inside car is very dependent upon the seal of all the related ducts to one another. You've so much of the system defeated that I'd think it of no value to just do a blower motor.

I realize the ease of blower motor replacement but I don't know that it's one of those "just to do it" things.

With no vacuum inside to the control there's an air inlet valve/door that's likely SHUT - open that and you should have circulation. There's I believe 4 vacuum controlled doors, 3 center of car for defrost, floor and upper air then to the right one that controls the air to the entire distribution system.

With that door open I believe it will quiet down the system also. Right now your blower doesn't have anywhere to push the air. With no vacuum control inside the car it's difficult to tell where you'll get air but I believe you'll get it somewhere. Default I'd think is likely floor so ..................

Bfenty

Where would I find this door?

xrav22

You could just hook up heater ac vacuum hose(from firewall) to check valve amd then to the manifold where the pic shows if you can find it. block off check valve($5 at aoutozone) to cruise control. Should power your vents still.

Pwnage1337

Any more info on the 134a conversion? Wanna get the AC running on my 85

Bfenty

I just put this stuff in, no conversion needed:

Bfenty

Ok, so I got a chance to go pull on things in the car, and found out some stuff:

1-The compressor is definitely working, I can see it engage and the A/C lines get cold
2-the vacuum line for the HVAC is cut and sealed off. I can see it coming from the plenum, but can't see the other side. Anyone know where it goes through the firewall/where I can start looking?
3-i found the vacuum solenoid for the main vent door. Manually opening it, I had air coming through! AND IT'S COLD!!!
4-Blower motor has a short in it. It kept cutting out on me, took a rubber mallet and tapped it, it came back on. Looks to be a pretty easy fix, already bought the replacement, anyone have a good link/writeup on how to swap?

Thanks for all of the input guys. I really appreciate it.

Bfenty

Found what appears to be a good video on replacing the blower motor.

xrav22

I am guessing the vacuum rubber tip broke and someone sealed it off. You may be able to use small vacume tubing over the end and use a adapter to a little bigger tube to connect to a check valve. If you have the vauum ball up front left you would like to run a line to it because It stores vacuum for your vents(and cruise) when accelerating.

Bfenty

yea I’ve got the ball. It’s completely disconnected though. My car should have cruise but of course it is stripped out too.

Do do you know where the vents hose goes through the firewall? I can’t find it. I’d like to get vacuum to the vents and start repairing the system.

WVZR-1

Only a guess but I'd think very likely it's in ECM wire bundle going through the dash/firewall - there's an image of that bundle I'd think in the wiring diagrams try page 139. That page should be right after the mirror diagram. '85 had images of components scattered "helter-skelter" it seems throughout the wiring section.

IHBD - should be able to confirm I'd think.

xrav22

Yes I agree I saw mine going into the bundle right down below the pass head. But I thought you had a part of it sticking out?
There you go just run a line to the ball from check valve when you get there.

Bfenty

to clarify, I have the vac line from the PLENUM sticking out. The other end is a complete mystery to me.

ill look for the ECM wiring bundle, I agree the FSM can be confusing sometimes.

xrav22

It probably broke and is near the bundle of wire by the head , find the other end if you can

Bfenty

replaced the blower motor, and topped off with some r12a. Blowing ICE COLD now

...now I just need to fix the vacuum lines so the vents are not zip tied open. Next big project.

Cliff Harris

The vacuum lines go through the bulkhead feedthrough behind the passenger side head. My vacuum lines got melted in a fire. You can see the rubber vacuum hoses I used to splice in the new vacuum lines.: