Martin Rochester

Moring Guys,

Please dont hate on this post, i know there are plenty of posts on AC removal, i have tried following but seem to have gaps in them. One i was looking at last night listed to remove AC pump but no mention of the belt no fitting.

I have removed the RAD, and AC tank unit from near the battery and the short pipe with a plug on it... no idea if this will give me error codes.

So could i just cable tie these up to the chassis or should i remove the whole setup. I am not able to get bolts from the firewall, no room. There is a large pipe which goes to the pump and smaller ones goto the rad.

Whats the best approach to this.

cr-rex

iTrader: (114)

Removing the a.c. requires no real instructions. It's just nuts and bolts. Anything a.c. related, remove. Not sure if you're asking how to access something or what you should be removing but there shouldn't be any questions with this process. Start at the firewall and remove everything the lines are attached to. Eventually you will end up back at the firewall with a pile of parts on the ground. You can remove all the parts under the dash of you want but it's a pain. If you just observe the way the stuff is in there, it's super straight forward on how to remove all the parts. There's no secret method or trick to it.

Martin Rochester

What about the pump, do i just remove the pipes going to it, but leave the pump in place, as if i remove this i will need a smaller belt.

Martin Rochester

Also any advice on break the larger 24mm ish nut on the firewall. Its sooo tight, i am not able to get my hand in, barely one spanner, ABS lines are in the way.

AE_Racer

iTrader: (1)

cr-rex

iTrader: (114)

if you're needing advice on how to break a nut loose you may want to reevaluate what you're doing. Regardless of what's in the way, use your mechanic sense to figure out a solution. This whole process is really like a "level 1" task. Especially when it comes to the belt situation. Homie just did a search FOR YOU. Maybe you should take the car somewhere and have a shop do this for you. If you're struggling to break the lines loose, I can't imagine what's going to happen when you go to take the compressor out.

StaticX27

iTrader: (2)

Speaking from personal experience, be careful removing that nut. If you strip it, you're replacing the whole heater core (speaking from personal experience :p), and the job suddenly goes to become a royal pain in the ***, to a prolific pain in the ***. That nut is a fitting attached to the heater core's radiator. it's unadvisable to just braze a new fitting on there, as the weld can potentially be weak, and you'll end up leaking refrigerant in the cabin, which is toxic. Replacing that, involves removing the entire dash just to access the box. It's not fun, but it can be an opportunity to clean it out, replace the seals and all that fun stuff. =P

As far as advice, soak it in WD-40 for a day or so and see if you can get it off then. Spray it inside, come back in a couple hours, spray more, rinse and repeat until it comes off. Again, do NOT strip those fittings.

SpinningDorito

iTrader: (2)

You should be able to remove the compressor and get a smaller belt. I don't know the size since I kept my AC in, but it should be well documented here with how many people ditch their AC systems. All that's holding the compressor in is 4 bolts accessible from the side, plus the two AC line connections.

There is a groove in the power steering reservoir that should let you loosen the top AC line, and the side line is a tight fit but possible with a wrench/ratchet. Once all of that is removed, you can just pull it to the side and out towards the front of the car.

Its a lot of tight fits for your hands, but not difficult.

The AC condensor lines going in and out of the firewall are the same story. Its a tight fit to loosen them, but not that hard. You'll need long crescent wrenches to get them loose. You'll notice there are two nuts, put a wrench on each nut and pull loose. It shouldn't take a lot of force. Once loose, you can finish by hand normally.

It helps with the firewall line to remove the ABS heat shield, and the heater core hose. That should give you enough room to get the wrenches in. You won't have much room to twist the wrenches, but enough to get it loose.

This was a pain to do the first time, but its actually pretty easy. Everything is just in a tight space.