I won’t be doing much to the AC condenser. I am straightening the flattened fins. Likely won’t make a big difference, but … A piece of thin plastic works fine.
Working on the short connector high pressure pipe. It holds the AC low pressure cutoff switch and the high pressure port. The kit I got contains fittings to convert from the original R12 system to 134A. I will likely use R22 gas when the time comes to charge the system.
I had put lots of penetrating oil on the bolts over a few weeks and with my impact wrench they all came out of heads OK. It seems by the casting numbers that they are both right hand manifolds so I guess they must be very similar. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that one of the ears is cracked on the manifold that came off the right side. Now to find a used one or a new one – no used ones locally that are up for sale so ordered a left side unit from Rock Auto for $120 at my door tax in.
I’ve blocked off the heat riser passages in the intake so I don’t need the flapper in the right exhaust pipe. I still need the unit as a spacer so I removed the flapper and tapped the bushing for a standard bolt.
I didn’t tap the bushing all the way in so that the bolt would jam tight. I also uses lots of blue lock tight and then cut off the bolt head.
This side of the flapper body fits into the exhaust pipe. There is no provision for a donut gasket??? So I’ll pick up some muffler cement and use that to seal between the unit and the exhaust pipe.
The high rise manifold has a casting bump that stops the TV cable bracket from mounting properly. So I cut a couple of brass bushings from a piece of brass pipe and used them along with longer intake bolts to get the bracket in place. It is actually better because the carb is higher with the new intake and the TV cable will be lined up better.
Since the heat riser passages in the intake are blocked I also need to block the opening for the choke heater tube as it can’t fit with the passages blocked. This is an Edelbrock block off plate. I will be using an electric choke on the Quadrajet in the final setup.
Next: On to the rad frame and installation of the AC condenser and the new aluminum rad.