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Korean Cortina - MOT day


mat_the_cat

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More steady progress, as I've removed the radiator, and managed to squeeze the condenser in front of it.

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The wiring loom is a little tight, but I'm not relishing the prospect of splicing in umpteen lengths to extend it! But if needs be...

The radiator sits back in the right position, happily.

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And this is how little room there is up against the bonnet release catch!

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If I'd realised it would be this close I'd have measured more accurately! But luckily a Rover 45 condenser is a great fit - who'd have thought it? It's currently held in with zip ties, so next stage is to make up proper brackets.

In other news I've found somewhere local who can shim my replacement diff :-) I was tempted to have a go myself, but I can't find a definitive figure for the backlash. Stuff I read online is conflicting. Plus if I hand it over I can concentrate on the AC.

I've actually got a choice of two places, first was the brother in law of a guy at work who's done one a few before. Second is a guy who I've had recommended from two sources, including the local trusted garage who uses him, as well as the rally boys. Arwel the Diff he's known as, which is surely a good sign!

I'll pop the axle off in the next week hopefully and get the ball rolling.

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No more progress, but I had an good chat with Arwel the Diff this afternoon, and planning to drop round the axle next Friday. I've had a recurrent leak from the nearside rear wheel bearing for a while, and neither replacing the bearing or seating it on silicone has cured it. He was saying that it's getting hard to come by decent quality bearings nowadays, and interestingly he doesn't rate the ones supplied by one of the places who recommended him to me! Says he keeps telling them they're no good, but people keep bringing them and asking him to fit. But he said not to buy anything till he's had a look, so will wait and see.

I've bought the differential bearings from a different, recommended supplier:
https://www.bearingkits.co.uk/about.asp
who I also spoke to on the phone. Same comments about wheel bearings, in fact to the extent that the only ones they can currently source, they don't want to sell! However he did say that it'd be unlikely that I'd have problems with a bearing I'd bought from Burton Power, so maybe it still is a mystery. One suggestion could be a blocked breather, so oil is being forced out when it heats up. Something to check at least.

 

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Back in 1997, on the day before New Year's eve I started my first 'big' job on the car, which was swapping the noisy rear axle for a Cortina one. I remember it well, as although daunting, went quite smoothly until I came to attach the propshaft. The flange was totally different, and I had to find a propshaft specialist within cycling distance who could do the job at short notice! They had to cut the end off, then weld on a new UJ and balance it again. It was like memory lane working underneath the car, removing the axle again.

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It's now off, ready to get a new diff installed on Friday. I checked and unfortunately the leaking wheel bearing isn't down to a blocked breather, but I'll get some advice from Arwel hopefully.

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Decent branded bearings to go in too :-)

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While the axle was off I was finally able to work out what the clonk was from the rear while going over bumps. I was sure it was the exhaust, but couldn't see any witness marks, and couldn't replicate it by waggling the tailpipe. But with the axle out of the way, I could get my head into a position to see where one of the pipe clamps was hitting the underside.

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I couldn't just rotate it, as clearance to the upper suspension arm was tight, so I fitted a different style of clamp which takes up less space. Stainless too, so should last.

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Then back to the AC installation. I've bought some bulkhead fittings, which have a neat little O ring in one of the nuts, to provide a good seal between engine bay and cabin

 

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I drilled two holes in the best location:

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Then painted the cut edges and installed the fittings.

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As you can see, the location coincided with an existing reinforcement bracket, which I had to trim around the lower fitting.

Now these are in, I can make up all the underbonnet hoses, and finish that job before I start the head-scratching job of mounting the evaporator under the dashboard. Bite-sized chunks makes the overall project seem more manageable!

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More on the hoses in the next post...

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On 1/22/2020 at 9:08 PM, mat_the_cat said:

More on the hoses in the next post...

OK, everything you (n)ever wanted to know about AC hoses!

Back in the early days, when R12 was used as a refrigerant it was usual to have to regularly top up the system every year or two, as it would slowly permeate through the hoses. This, as we now know, was a bad thing. With the introduction of R134a (a smaller molecule so more prone to leak out), and the need to protect the ozone layer, a new hose was required. This was known as barrier hose, for the simple reason it now contained an extra barrier layer to reduce this leakage by a factor of 10. So, all hose that you can buy nowadays is barrier hose.

Trouble is, while there is plenty of room for most of my planned hose routing, there will be some tight spots. So I needed the less common reduced barrier hose, which is  basically an improved construction allowing it to be thinner with the same performance (burst and permeation resistance), as well as being more flexible. I'm just trying to make life easier for myself!

I couldn't find any online UK source of reduced barrier hose or fittings, so again had to look over the pond. I am very envious of both the choice and low prices over there!  Compare the prices and selection (this includes both male and female O-ring fittings) here:
https://www.carbuilder.com/uk/ac-unions#/pageSize=20&viewMode=grid&orderBy=0

with *just* the female fittings listed here:
https://coldhose.com/fittings/oring/female-oring.html

Plus male, male insert, male and female flare and springlock fittings! For a geek like me it was quite enjoyable browsing through the selection and choosing (hopefully) exactly what I need. The fact that even including postage it was cheaper than the UK was the icing on the cake! So as soon as that arrives I can start making hoses, leaving 'just' the evaporator under the dashboard to sort.

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I've managed to run the loom in the U section behind the bumper, so have added the wiring for the fans, and temporarily taped the loom together.

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For the top mountings of the condenser I have bought some rubber bobbin mounts, with a male thread on one side and female on the other.

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Now I've got the top in position I can tack some lower mounts in position, then remove it again for properly welding it in. I've recessed the bolts for the top mounts, so I can just pop a blanking grommet over the top to look as neat as possible.

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Fan connectors are heavy duty Superseal, so should stand up well to being in the line of spray.

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So this is where I am up to at the moment.

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My hoses have arrived from the US, but are currently stuck in customs according to the tracking. Although I've not had any notification of what I need to do to release them...

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Yesterday I got an exciting (for me) message to say that my axle was ready! So I went along to collect it this morning. I'd dropped it off last Friday with Arwel, (who must be well into his 70s) who immediately spotted that the wheel bearing was a pattern type and hence not be sealing correctly. He was pretty sure he had some NOS bearings so I left it with him to set up the diff and replace the wheel bearing.

I had a look online and struggled a bit

https://www.motorsport-tools.com/ford-atlas-axle-genuine-sfk-wheel-bearing-62mm.html

Eventually finding one in France for a similar amount, so I was most pleased to only be charged £28 for an original Ford bearing! I'm not sure where he got the price from but quite possibly whatever was on the original box!

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I popped off the diff cover to have a look, and all seems nice and clean, everything meshing nicely with very little backlash (the idea is that you set it up with slight clearance when cold, so once up to temperature that is taken up with expension).

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The all-important ratio! Bit of historic damage to the diff carrier, but not a functional concern.

I then lightly greased a new gasket, laid than in place and squirted some EP90 oil over all the gears, to keep everything protected while the car is sitting idle.

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Finally, it's on with the cover, which is fortunately still in great condition. They often rust through but absolutely no sign of that on this one.

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The wheel bearing problem did turn out to be leakage through the bearing itself, which explained why seating it on silicone had no effect. I'd ruled that out after building a plasticine 'well' around the bearing with the halfshaft vertical on the bench, and filling with oil overnight. I guess that although there was no static leakage, it must have been leaking out when warm under rotation.

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Back on with the air con install, and I need to sort out lower mounting points for the condenser. Simplest option was just to replicate the original way of doing it, so I bought a set of mounting rubbers.

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These push over pegs on the underside of the condenser, like so:

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At present, the bottom of the condenser is just floating in free space, so I needed to do construct a couple of mounting points.

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The rubbers will just drop into the holes like this, and then I will weld the mounts into the correct location, leaving a few mm clearance for the radiator. 

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Slight revision to the plan for the lower mounts.

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Now welded in, and first a coat of Zinga over everything.

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I'm not too bothered about finish, so I gave it all a coat of silver Hammerite afterwards - it will hardly been seen from above, and I think in probably 10-15 years time I'll do a complete restoration anyway, and have the bare shell dipped (watch this space!)

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Once that had dried I gave the seams a blast with cavity wax, and lowered the condenser into place for (hopefully!) the last time for a while. I've wrapped the wiring with loom tape, not that you can see much of it in the photo above.

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I've also added a few extra tabs for mounting the third cooling fan on the inside of the rad. Previously it was held by those zip tie clips which pass though the fins. They seemed a bit of a bodge method, and not very OE looking anyway.

Then I could put the radiator back in, with around 2mm clearance to the condenser. 

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It's pretty tight on the front too, although I guess I could have trimmed the crossmember if required.

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Now that it's finally mounted I can start playing with this little lot!

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Never made AC hoses before, but it doesn't look a difficult job. Plus I'll have the tool for any other jobs on the rest of the fleet.

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Made a start on the hoses in the warmth and dryness of the house! Just push the hose into the fitting, checking that it's reached the bottom by looking through the small hole.

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Then choose the right size dies, and crimp away!

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The hose feels very supple so shouldn't be too much of a problem to route through the engine bay. But I've got to make sure I'm happy with the route before cutting to length; I don't have enough spare to allow for cock-ups.

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Next (mini) milestone acheived! All the underbonnet hoses are now in place. Starting from the compressor, the larger of the two goes directly to the bulkhead, where it will connect to the (yet to be worked out) evaporator.

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With hindsight I'd have trimmed that lump from the head to improve access. The smaller hose travels under the radiator to emerge behind the grille and connect to the condenser. 

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(Horns yet to be refitted, if there is the room). From the condenser the hose winds tightly round to the receiver drier behind the headlight. Again with hindsight, I may have tried a 135 degree fitting to make the tight curve in the fitting rather than the hose.

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From there the hose travels round the outside of the engine bay, to join with the bulkhead connectors. This is where the system will be filled from, so it's handy to have good access to the fill valves.

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Jobs still to do are, as mentioned making up new horn brackets, routing the headlamp washer hoses, and protecting the hoses from abrasion.

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I'm leaning towards filling it at home TBH. I can buy a vacuum pump and filling kit for under £100, which I think I'd prefer to do for a number of reasons. Firstly I can make sure there are no leaks, without having to take it backwards and forwards to a garage. Secondly I can leave the system pumping down overnight, to remove as much moisture s practically possible. And lastly, as I have no idea exactly how much refrigerant it takes, I can play around with fill amounts at no extra cost.

Only fly in the ointment is the current (risen massively in the last few years) cost of the gas - I'm probably looking around another £100 for the amount I guess I'll need! I'll give my local friendly garage a try, as they may be willing to help.

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The horn brackets were easy to make up, so managed to mount them both behind the grille as previously.

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And with the grill back on everything looks as standard.

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Next step is finding a suitable evaporator. I can't mount it with the heater matrix, as when cold air is selected, the air bypasses the matrix completely. So I think my best option is to mount the evaporator in the trunking between blower motor, and heater assembly, meaning I need one which is squareish and compact. For the last few weeks I've basically been searching Google images for a usable sized and shaped evaporator, then cross referencing the dimensions from the part number.

I may have struck lucky, with one from (ironically!) a Hyundai Amica.

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As a bonus the expansion valve is mounted close to the heat exchanger, keeping the whole thing as compact as possible.

I've also been reinstalling the rear axle. It's at the stage where I need to put the springs in, but before I did that I wanted to measure them. Reason being that if you compare this old and recent photo, it seems to be sitting higher at the rear than it used to.

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It turns out that comparing the lengths to the workshop manual, one is too long and the other too short! The long one is progressively wound, so will sag more and take up some of the difference but even so I'm amazed that I never noticed a difference! So I'm now trying to find springs as close to the original as possible - looking like Cortina 2 litre saloon heavy duty ones will be almost identical.

Quote

 

Colour code blue/violet

wire diameter 0.47/0.59in (12.05/15.03mm)

free length 11.5in (291.5mm)

outer diameter 5.08in (129mm)

number of coils 7.5

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Although all I can find at present are linear rate springs. Given that I didn't notice the difference side to side though, I'm obviously not as finely tuned to the car's responses as I thought I was! So any kind of matched pair will be an improvement.

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I feel pretty sure that the current springs won't have helped handling...

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Nowhere can I find progressive springs, so I've bought these from Rally Design. 

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The spring rate is identical to the 'stiff' portion of the travel for the originals, but will be a little harsher over small bumps. Lengthwise they are 25mm shorter than the originals, but will sag less so I'm guessing will end up being similar to correct height - I'm not slamming it!!!

They were reasonably priced from Rally Design, and purely on a visual basis look well made - they've been neatly deburred, and powder coating seems thick.

I've fitted them this evening, and just need to bleed/adjust brakes, and check all fasteners before I can finally take it for a drive again!

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I've refilled the engine coolant and run it up to temperature, partly to get rid of any airlocks, partly to check the operation of the new fan switch & wiring, and partly just to listen to the V8 again :-)

The primary cooling fan cut in and out as it should, but couldn't get it hot enough even holding the revs, to operate the twin secondary fans. This is encouraging, as I am only anticipating them to be required in more extreme temperatures. I've tested the operation of them by bridging the fan switch contacts, and nearly got sucked into the grille so I know they work.

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I took a punt on the evaporator, although struggled to find one listed online in the UK. But £40 posted from Germany hardly broke the bank, and it arrived today.

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This is the space I've got to play with, between the blower motor and heater matrix casing.

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So, will it fit? Well, just about...

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I may have to move the dashboard bracket to give a little more clearance, and/or modify the evaporator to reduce the size, but it all looks encouragingly possible at the moment!

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Today I lowered it onto its wheels, and went for a much-missed drive. Even my wife reckoned it handled better whilst sat in the passenger seat, so I'll take that as a success! The ride height is only slightly lower, but I think it looks spot on to me :-)

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The diff is nice and quiet, and the revs are around 500rpm lower at 60mph, so a welcome improvement. I've recalibrated the electronic speedo drive to read 60mph at a sat nav indicated 59mph.

It was really great to use it again, especially with the recent little improvements. Perhaps this year I'll finally get it exactly how I want it!

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On 2/21/2020 at 10:58 PM, mat_the_cat said:

the air con will demist the steamy windows nicely

Depending on how you arrange the ducting, be careful of doing this.. an experience I had with a 405, which is designed to have all the airflow into the car going through the evaporator whether the AC is on or not.

If you use the AC to dry out the incoming air, with the heater being used as an air re-heater to get the lowest humidity level possible in the air being blown at the screens, the problem is that the AC evaporator gets wet.  Very wet.  So as soon as you've demisted the car if you then turn off the AC, the evaporator then warms back up again, likely to *above* the incoming air temperature.  All of that wet then evaporates off of the now warmish evaporator, creating air with a dew-point higher than the temperature of the glass in the car.  You can see where this is going no-doubt.

Essentially, in every 405, and most other AC-equipped cars I've had, once you've used the AC to demist the interior of the car, you have to leave it on for fear of having insta-fog on the windscreen.  The 405 was terrible for it.  turn off the AC, and within about 30 seconds you were completely blind.  Turn it back on, and the screen cleared again.  I ended up not using the AC in colder weather as it caused more issues than it fixed.

In complete comparison, the Range Rover Classic had an add-on AC unit over on the passenger side of the car, which when engaged diverted air from the heater box through the Evaporator and then into the body of the car.  It even had a separate fan.  This had the very useful benefit of when you turned the AC off, air was no longer passed over the Evaporator, so the wet on it couldn't cause a problem any more.

If you can install a bypass on the evaporator, definitely do so.

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12 hours ago, Talbot said:

Essentially, in every 405, and most other AC-equipped cars I've had, once you've used the AC to demist the interior of the car, you have to leave it on for fear of having insta-fog on the windscreen.  

This exact thing, as you say, still happens in Peugeots, my expert van has this problem in spades (and its a large windscreen to just suddenly fog up, very annoying)

and to mat, why is your work so satisfying to see? Everything is always so nicely done (I think this is a compliment but basically, i'm just jealous)

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3 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

This exact thing, as you say, still happens in Peugeots,

I had it happen in a Ford Mundaneo once too.  It didn't seem quite as bad, but it was definitely a bit dangerous as the screen fogged over in about 5 seconds, but then took a good minute or two to clear once the AC was switched back on.

Because I didn't want to have the AC on for the whole journey, I pulled over and flicked off the AC to see how long it would take for the evaporator to dry out.  Took what felt like an eternity (probably about 10 minutes), thus completely negating the improved speed of initial de-misting.

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14 hours ago, Talbot said:

Essentially, in every 405, and most other AC-equipped cars I've had, once you've used the AC to demist the interior of the car, you have to leave it on for fear of having insta-fog on the windscreen.  The 405 was terrible for it.  turn off the AC, and within about 30 seconds you were completely blind. 

This often indicates water sloshing around in the plenum or ducts because the A/C drain is blocked. (Unless you are somewhere really hot and humid like Singapore)

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1 hour ago, Asimo said:

This often indicates water sloshing around in the plenum or ducts because the A/C drain is blocked.

I knew someone was going to say this.  No, it doesn't. Not necessarily anyway  The AC condensate drain only drains water that can actually run off the evaporator and pour away.  Even with completely clear drains, the evaporator will be dripping wet while the AC is working (after all, that is how it dehumidifies the incoming air).  In normal service there is easily 50+ml of water held between the plates of the evaporator, ready to drip off.  That's easily enough to insta-fog up all the windows in a car.

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7 hours ago, Stinkwheel said:

and to mat, why is your work so satisfying to see? Everything is always so nicely done (I think this is a compliment but basically, i'm just jealous)

Believe me, there's parts I think I could have done better! But I just try and strike some sort of balance between doing some kind of functionally acceptable job, and getting it done in a reasonable timescale so I can use the vehicle.

20 hours ago, Talbot said:

All of that wet then evaporates off of the now warmish evaporator, creating air with a dew-point higher than the temperature of the glass in the car.  You can see where this is going no-doubt.

If you can install a bypass on the evaporator, definitely do so.

Ah, that makes complete sense. I've noticed it too, including on brand new vehicles, but didn't think about the very obvious reason why! I'd never really thought about it at all, beyond thinking "How did we ever manage before AC was the norm?!"

So far I'd considered 4 options:

1. Mounting the evaporator between blower and matrix, as most vehicles. Disadvantages as above...
2. Mounting it on the inside of the recirculated air intake. I can't see me using recirculated air without AC to dry it, although I'd rather not *have* to recirculate the air just to use AC.
3. Mounting it feeding into the trunking between blower and matrix. I'd need another fan to force the air through the evaporator into the airflow already present.
4. Mounting an evaporator 'somewhere else' with a fan simply to recirculate the interior air through it, i.e. not interfering with the existing heater system at all.

The ideal situation would be option 1, with the possibility to bypass the evaporator when the AC isn't running. But as it stands there's only room for one air path without making it rather convoluted. But at least I've got the car mobile now, and the bulk of the install is done so I can think about the interior side of things without too much pressure to get it back together again.

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Option 2/4 is how a fair number of vehicles that have had AC retrofitted to their design work.  The example of the RRC is one I know well, but there are others.

What you might be able to do, perhaps, is mount the AC evaporator in the recirculation air, such that it is only keeping pre-cooled air cold, rather than the duty of cooling incoming warm air, but then introduce a stop or position on the fresh-to-recirc air flap that gives you 90% recirc (and hence cooled and dehumidified) air and 10% fresh inlet air.  That would give you the option for fresh air from the outside, all recirculated/chilled air or a nice blend of chilled and fresh, but with the added bonus that when you have a wet condenser and want to turn the AC off, you can just select fresh air to avoid pulling all that wet off the condenser and into the car.

Of course, it will dry eventually, but it'll take an hour or so rather than 3 minutes, meaning you're not dumping all that moisture into the car in one go.

Depends a lot on how the air does it's recirculation I guess, and whether you can get the evaporator in there or not.

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5 hours ago, Talbot said:

I knew someone was going to say this.  No, it doesn't. Not necessarily anyway  The AC condensate drain only drains water that can actually run off the evaporator and pour away.  Even with completely clear drains, the evaporator will be dripping wet while the AC is working (after all, that is how it dehumidifies the incoming air).  In normal service there is easily 50+ml of water held between the plates of the evaporator, ready to drip off.  That's easily enough to insta-fog up all the windows in a car.

OK.  I reached my own conclusion a long time ago, driving a mouldy ( literally) pool-car Escort Diesel.  Probably not a good place to think clearly.

What you describe makes sense. 

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35 minutes ago, Asimo said:

What you describe makes sense. 

To be fair, you're absolutely right.  If the drain on the AC evaporator blocks, the problem will be massively worse, and you'll never de-mist the car regardless of AC on, off part on, fresh or recirc air.  Mat has a good opportunity to avoid all the usual issues with AC here.

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