My SA AC hasn't worked since the mid 90s. In 2007 or so I uninstalled it to gain some room for a side mounted alternator. Man I was cool back then LOL. Anyway, now that I'm older and wiser I wanted to reinstall the old AC system. I had saved all the parts, kept the compressor oiled and spun it on a regular basis so I really just needed new hoses and a new drier. The other things about my car is it came with the AC factory installed. This observation is based on the fact that all my lines connecting to the compressor are hardlines that use the oring fittings and not flare fittings. This thread is about all the things I went through to get this done. I learned and relearned a lot of lessons. It was a COVID project, meaning it took months to complete but thats ok I have plenty of time since I can't drive much cause no cruise ins or C&C right now.

I tried to get new hoses made at a CarQuest shop near me that does hydraulic hoses a couple of years ago. That didn't pan out because they couldn't find 1 of 4 ends I needed to get them remade. I was thinking I had metric fittings and when I called around to real hydraulic shops when I mentioned I had what I thought were metric fittings, they all immediately said "We don't do those" end of call. Hmmm. Eventually I got some made by a local AC guru and it turns out they are standard fittings. He was able to test fit them to some cars in his shop and let me know that. Great guy, if you are in NC near Charlotte got Pettys Cool Shop in Mathews and Tim Petty will fix you up. I found about Tim while at a C&C a couple of years ago and was talking to tech for shop that does a lot of JDM work. He had an FB there with an AC system reinstalled or he did one for my buddy Steve, the memory fades, but I do remember he used Pettys Cool shop. This is why car get togethers are so worth it. One of the many issues I had to overcome to get this done.

I can't write this all up in one go, but I'll keep dropping posts in here to document the process I went through to get this done. May help someone or give someone the nudge to get their AC fixed up as well.

So heres some pictures of the components before I cleaned them up and got them ready for reinstall.

These are the the condensor, hardlines, and some of the mounting hardware for the condensor, dryer and compressor. I had already steel wooled the hardlines to clean them up but you can see how rusty all the ferrous metal parts were. I couldn't reinstall it like that, oh no.


These are the old hoses.


This is a pulley I pulled from an FB in the junkyard, more about that later.

 

I did this about 5 years ago, I just got the crimp tool (not cheap) and used the oem fittings and installed new hoses on the old fittings. You can cut the old crimps off the old hose fittings; the new crimps slide over the old ends.

If all that wording makes any sense.

 

What a great Thread. Or will be! Thanks for taking the time to document your adventure t_g_. Suspect a fair number of RX Acs are either laboring along with original bits, or are non-functional at this point in their lives. So yes, please! Tell us more.
My 80 SA never came with AC (and was a So.Cali. car much of its life! So not a lot of summer driving there. LOL). By damnably good luck a buddy found and sold me an NOS 80 AC system which, to date, I have yet to install. Will read your posts with interest!

Stu A
80GS
AZ

 

I'm older and not cool either! I love my A/C. With the humidity here by the ocean, summer is unbearable and when it rains, the windows fog up immediately. Having the compressor is a lifesaver.

 

Well, I think you're cool CK...

Yeah, humidity not really an issue in AZ ...
Stu A
80GS AZ

 

So that first picture of the condensor and its mounting hardware along with some random bits and pieces for mounting the compressor and hoses were all in need of a good cleaning. Like I said, I steelwooled the hard lines to get them nice and shiney but the oring connectors and all the other hardware was pretty rusty looking. I'd been reading about using vinegar to clean metal parts up and decided to give it a try. I got me some regular vinegar at the grocery store and soaked the parts in it overnight. It worked pretty well and the parts looked like this:

Then I decided to get something stronger. I found this at Lowes:



At 30% its 6x stronger and do not inhale it, it hurts. Anyway, I soaked the parts again and the rust just fell off. I then hit em lightly with some steelwool or wire brush, whichever was easiest to get into the nooks and crannies and it came out like this (sprayed with WD40 to stop flash rust). I did not put the condensor in completely, I was afraid the fins would dissolve. I stood it on its ends in a an plastic oil pan to try and clean off some of that corrosion on the AL cores.

Later I wiped it all down with acetone, priemd it with an etching primer and now parts:


Oh yeah, I also plasti-dipped the hose clamps to make them look more like OEM. I just used the plasti-dip in a can that you would use for handles of hand tools.

Next up the pulley.

 

So that double pulley in the first post was what I was going to use for the AC compressor belt. Its from an FB and has 2 sheaves one for PS and the other for AC. Well I went to hook it up and I barely had any clearance with the fans. This wouldn't do. So I reached out to my OGTA brothers down in ATL and ALA to see if anyone had an SA AC pulley in their stash. The SA never came with PS so it always had a single pulley. Lo and behold, Robert in ALA @rwatson5651 had one he was willing to part with. Thank you so much Robert, I owe you more waffles I think. Heres the pulley after I gave it the vinegar treatment:


And after paint.


Next up the hose story.

 

Bring The Bling!
FWIW POR15 gloss black is Bullet-Proof. My Go-To for stuff that get exposed to exterior abuses.

Great stuff t_g_, keep it coming

Stu A
80GS
AZ

 

I'm with you Stu, POR is great as long as the parts don't see any sun. It degrades quickly.

Fortunately it all under the hood stuff.

Tim, i did the tedious work of pulling all the small rocks and debris out of all the fins. May or may not have helped, but more air is better. I also bent each fin back in place.

Your progress is looking great!

 

I've had good luck with the Rustoleum high temp gloss as long as you do a good etching primer under it, plus its lot cheaper and easier to use LOL.

I did straighten the fins but as old as the condenser is I was pretty conservative when I fixed it up. It seems to cool well so I think I'm ok for now.

 

Those reconditioned parts look amazing. Nice photos.

 

So I loosely attached the hardlines and the condensor with the drier mount to see how it all fit back into place. I never took pics from removing it all so I had to do some research looking at various SA engine bays. Tough job but someone has to do it. Anyway here is how it all looked in the bay:



Looks like it will all fit nicely. Only thing I noticed was the new drier (sourced from RockAuto for a factory install on an 80) was a smaller diameter that the original drier. Would have to do some fiddling to make it tight in the clamp.



The compressor with the new pulley and belt all fit nicely too. Starting to come together now.


Of course while I had the battery out I touched up the battery tray holder a bit. Its not perfect but most of this stuff is hidden anyway. I just want to control the ferrite mites.

 

Got to get the hoses in next. That was pretty easy because the new hoses are about 1/4 less in diameter that the old ones and more flexible to boot. The high side hose was pretty easy, just loop around the back of the bay and anchor it with the OEM clamp off the firewall.



The low pressure hose up to the condensor was a bit of trouble but better than the old hose. I had cut the old hose to deinstall years ago because it was such a tight fit in there.This is also the other reason I had to remove the batter shelf. As you can see it tight and one of the shelf bolts holds the clamp when it goes back in.


Where ever the hose might be in contact with somethinh hard or sharp, I made a collar out of large heater hose that fit over the AC hoses and slipped it over the hose to protect it.

Next up will be some wiring details as I made sure all the connections worked before cranking it up

 

Were the inside/passenger bits already in place t_g_?
Nice work. What refrigerant have you decided to use?

Stu A
80GS
AZ

 

So all the interior parts were already intact and I didn't have much to do there. I pulled the blower motor to clean it out and get a visual on things. The only issue is low speed is not working on the motor, so I need to do that resistor pack fix that was posted recently. Since I knew the system was functional when it was removed I didn't mess with the expansion valve at all.

Of course I used R152a, got 4 cans at 2 cans for $9 at wally world:

 

I'm still scared of trying that stuff, but I'll have to when mine leaks out. 4 years so far!

 

I'll go thru the step by step I followed when I did this. It was really easy, the second time LOL.

 

Great job with all you've done!!! I really enjoyed reading through everything!! If I had seen this thread sooner I would have offered you some NOS a/c o-rings. I bought out the supply from Mazda about 10 years or so ago. I bought every o-ring for the a/c system due to them being NLA but showing a stock of them. If you do end up needing any please let me know!

 

Hey Dave, appreciate the thought but I just used the assorted green orings from the advancezone.AC section. Seemed to work well once I learned not to over tighten the fittings.

 

No worries at all! If you ever end up needing them for any reason, shoot me a message!!

 

So I fixed my blower motor with a 1986 Mazda 323 resistor pack that I modified to work in the SA. See this https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...-idea-1146490/ were I posted how I did it. I did end up pulling out the evaporator box, cleaning it out. Cleaning the evaporator and changing out the expansion valve. Pics coming on that. Need to get some more duster spray before I continue.

 

Any more pics of this?

 

Hi great post! I have a 79 that appears not to have come with AC. I have many of the parts to install but no idea of what I need in the interior, wiring, is there an AC button to push, etc.
Can you advise or post up a pic or two of where the AC controls might be?

 

I'm sure the others will be of more help than I can provide, but here's a little to get started with. The factory AC setup for SAs is just a push button in the center of the fan speed **** and that's it for controls. As far as wiring goes here's a couple snippets from one of the manuals. I should also note that theses are for the UK models because I can't find the US ones for whatever reason, although the wiring should largely be the same.