Re: Alfa A/C (longish)

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

Good post by Bill Bain on retrofitting air conditioning to a '72-'74, as Joe 
Garcia had asked about. I had previously sent my 1.5 cents to Joe, agreeing 
with most of what Bill said, so this is mainly addenda to Bill's post.

Bill wrote "It's my understanding that until 1983, all Alfa A/C was dealer 
installed. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but my experience has been 
that dealer-installed anything varies widely in quality and finding the "kit" 
to install a dealer installed option might be hard.

Yes and no. Alfa owner had an article in October 1970 on an owner-installed 
unit, and followed in January 1971with an article about a 'kit' for Alfas 
made by Frigiquip of Oklahoma City; not cheap ($380, close to 10% of a new 
Alfa cost) and a lot of work. Some later standard Alfa units were certainly 
dealer-installed; in September 1980 Alfa Owner had a short notice (by Fred 
DiMatteo, the AROC-ARI Liaison) about a special sale of factory A/C kits 
through dealers at a special price of $545 (Alfetta) and $555 (Spider). But a 
1974 ARI flier listing 1974 improvements included "A factory installed air 
conditioning system to keep a driver comfortable all year around. Athermic 
tinted glass keeps sun out for more efficient cooling.". The photo of the 
installation was of a Berlina.

I have a 1973 European GTV with air, including an 'aria acondizionata' decal 
in the window, with an installation identical to all that I have seen on 1974 
coupes. In addition, some of the parts listed for Alfetta air conditioning 
units, including the nasty head studs, have 105 (not 115) parts numbers, 
suggesting that they were first used on European, not American, 2000s. From 
all of this I would bet that the 105/115 system was first used in 1973 on 
some Eurospec cars, then in 1974 on US cars, usually factory installed but 
also available as a kit for dealer installation. 

Bill' statement that "The SPICA equipped cars hung the A/C compressor above 
the alternator using a very crude bar stock bracket that was mounted to two 
large studs that were added to the front of the timing cover.  It makes the 
front of the engine bay very crowded, especially in a Spider" may be true for 
Spiders (with which I am unfamiliar) but the studs were on the head, not the 
timing cover, on coupes and sedans. It is, as he says, crude, heavy, crowded 
and also ugly, and hard on the heads, which have to be heliarced together 
after they break.

Bill's suggestion "Aftermarket underdash A/C evaporators, etc. were pretty 
commonly
available in the late 60s and early 70s and can probably be found at most
American old car shows.  JC Whitney may even still hve them :-)  They would
look right for the period" sounds reasonable enough but I doubt that it will 
fly. American cars of the period were generally fifteen to twenty inches 
wider than an Alfa, and space is tight. The Alfa units incorporated 
evaporator, heater core, fans, fresh air intake, ducting, and controls in a 
single unit, and I doubt that one could manage separate heater and evaporator 
units in an Alfa's underdash space. A 1974 Alfa evaporator would be first 
choice, a Spider evaporator would probably fit with some carving of dash and 
console, an Alfetta unit might work with more carving- probably a lot more 
carving. Even switching evaporators between a Sport Sedan and a Alfetta coupe 
or earlier Alfetta sedan would not be a snap. One other possibility would be 
to mount an evaporator from Vintage Air (a supplier to the hot-rod/kustom-kar 
market) in the trunk, where there is room to play with and where there would 
be a weight-distribution advantage.

Bill's suggestion to use the compressor mounting system and hardware from a 
Bosch Spider is very reasonable for a GTV, either with carburetors (if local 
smog restrictions and personal preferences allow) or with a complete Bosch 
Spider engine transplant. Bosch engines have been installed in GTVs (one such 
was the subject of an Alfa owner article several years ago, complete with ugh 
Spider phone dial wheels) and both smog restrictions and personal preferences 
could make that a sound choice. The compressor mounting system used from 1974 
through 1978, hanging crude brackets from the head in a way the head wasn't 
designed for, seems undesirable. Late Alfetta Sport Sedans used another mount 
of a rotary compressor above the alternator, with brackets to the alternator 
mount and to a long nut on the exhaust manifold- neater and easier on the 
head; and Jim Steck once suggested mounting a rotary compressor where the 
alternator normally mounts, and running the alternator above it with a 
secondary belt. This would require some fabrication. Any other solution would 
require an appropriate crank pulley, different from those on non-AC cars.

One final limit would be the space for the condenser in front of the 
radiator. The space is tight, the biggest condenser which would fit is none 
too big for the job, and there would certainly be no room for both a 
condenser and an electric pusher fan.

If Joe can find an air-conditioned '74 that suits his needs in other 
respects, he will be in fairly good shape. Otherwise, if he finds an 
excellent non-air conditioned GTV, I would think a cheap, terminally rusted 
air conditioned GTV parts car should be a practical donor for all needed 
parts, including the different console, with Spider stuff as a fall-back. I 
wish him luck.

John H.
Raleigh, N.C.

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End of alfa-digest V7 #1276
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