[Air conditioning system]

I can't seem to find the cable you are referring to. I only see one cable attached to the temp slide control, and it is attached on the driver side of the lever, behind the control unit. The only place I can see up under or into the dash on the pass side is at the pass left knee area, up against the console. Through the small opening, in the picture attached, I can see the air box and a vacuum actuator can with a yellow vacuum line to it. This vac actuator gets vacuum delivered to it whenever the heat and defrost buttons on the dash control are pushed. Otherwise, in all other positions there is no vac to it. This actuator is sitting directly behind the radio, about 8" behind the dash front surface and 6" below the radio plane. When the vac line is removed from the actuator the system looses its ability to channel air to the floor. When connected this actuator seems to control air flow to the floor, in the defrost and heat modes. Is this in the area of the actuator where the cable or damper door you refer to should be? Or maybe where you are referring to as the passenger side is above the footwell area, where I need to remove the carpeted box covering the blower motor? Thank you

Mike

It appears that the actuator is working properly. If you can completely shut off water circulation to the heater core and still get no cooling (ambient air temperature coming out of the vents) I would strongly suspect you are out of Freon. See if the compressor cycles on and off, if little Freon is left. The A/C system used Freon 12 and after years, especially if A/C unused or seldom used, it will escape. If system was changed over to 134a and the original hoses were not changed, the 134a will leak thru the hoses, as the 134a is much smaller molecule than the 12. Had this sad experience with the '78. This will happen at different speed depending on the condition of the system in my case it took about 7 to 8 months. Hope you get this resolved before the dog days of summer get here. Alberto

[Air conditioning system]

I can't seem to find the cable you are referring to. I only see one cable attached to the temp slide control, and it is attached on the driver side of the lever, behind the control unit. The only place I can see up under or into the dash on the pass side is at the pass left knee area, up against the console. Through the small opening, in the picture attached, I can see the air box and a vacuum actuator can with a yellow vacuum line to it. This vac actuator gets vacuum delivered to it whenever the heat and defrost buttons on the dash control are pushed. Otherwise, in all other positions there is no vac to it. This actuator is sitting directly behind the radio, about 8" behind the dash front surface and 6" below the radio plane. When the vac line is removed from the actuator the system looses its ability to channel air to the floor. When connected this actuator seems to control air flow to the floor, in the defrost and heat modes. Is this in the area of the actuator where the cable or damper door you refer to should be? Or maybe where you are referring to as the passenger side is above the footwell area, where I need to remove the carpeted box covering the blower motor? Thank you

Mike

It appears that the actuator is working properly. If you can completely shut off water circulation to the heater core and still get no cooling (ambient air temperature coming out of the vents) I would strongly suspect you are out of Freon. See if the compressor cycles on and off, if little Freon is left. The A/C system used Freon 12 and after years, especially if A/C unused or seldom used, it will escape. If system was changed over to 134a and the original hoses were not changed, the 134a will leak thru the hoses, as the 134a is much smaller molecule than the 12. Had this sad experience with the '78. This will happen at different speed depending on the condition of the system in my case it took about 7 to 8 months. Hope you get this resolved before the dog days of summer get here. Alberto

[Air conditioning system]

I can't seem to find the cable you are referring to. I only see one cable attached to the temp slide control, and it is attached on the driver side of the lever, behind the control unit. The only place I can see up under or into the dash on the pass side is at the pass left knee area, up against the console. Through the small opening, in the picture attached, I can see the air box and a vacuum actuator can with a yellow vacuum line to it. This vac actuator gets vacuum delivered to it whenever the heat and defrost buttons on the dash control are pushed. Otherwise, in all other positions there is no vac to it. This actuator is sitting directly behind the radio, about 8" behind the dash front surface and 6" below the radio plane. When the vac line is removed from the actuator the system looses its ability to channel air to the floor. When connected this actuator seems to control air flow to the floor, in the defrost and heat modes. Is this in the area of the actuator where the cable or damper door you refer to should be? Or maybe where you are referring to as the passenger side is above the footwell area, where I need to remove the carpeted box covering the blower motor? Thank you

Mike

It appears that the actuator is working properly. If you can completely shut off water circulation to the heater core and still get no cooling (ambient air temperature coming out of the vents) I would strongly suspect you are out of Freon. See if the compressor cycles on and off, if little Freon is left. The A/C system used Freon 12 and after years, especially if A/C unused or seldom used, it will escape. If system was changed over to 134a and the original hoses were not changed, the 134a will leak thru the hoses, as the 134a is much smaller molecule than the 12. Had this sad experience with the '78. This will happen at different speed depending on the condition of the system in my case it took about 7 to 8 months. Hope you get this resolved before the dog days of summer get here. Alberto

[Air conditioning system]

I have an '89 conv with an Acme Radiator (Goshen, Indiana) a/c system and vacuum control head. The company now known as Mobile Climate Control in Goshen has no records...The a/c system uses what I call the standard GM components in the engine compartment, under the hood. In the passenger compartment is the Acme system. The a/c compressor and all components are cooling as they should (I can get the accumulator to sweat and a cold suction line) but I cannot get cold air to be delivered to the dash vent openings. The system will deliver/blow heated, and non-a/c air to the dash vents, defrost position, and floor vents. All seems to be opertaing regularly except for delivery of the cold air to the dash vents. There are 4 vac actuators under the dash and I was wondering if anyone knows this system and the actuator sequences required to deliver the cold air.

Sorry about a delayed response but I just happened to be browsing the Studebaker talks and was not aware there was an Avanti one also. I had similar problem with my convertible. As it turned out the temperature lever in the dash for the A]C control had become disengaged from the control wire that goes to the control valve on the heater hose under the hood in the engine compartment. The symptoms were as you describe and in happened at the beggining of the hot weather(March here in FL) after having used the heat during the winter. Easy way to check if this is the problem just manually turn the heater valve at the hose under the dash. In my case I had to remove the radio to gain better access to the heater control cable. Good luck in your endeavors Alberto