Spider A/C

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Thanks to both Tony Martie and Bill Bain for correcting my incorrect post on
fitting A/C to early Spiders. It is salutary, and occasionally bearable, to
get one's comeuppance. My excuses" (papers at the other house, it was raining,
etc) may be reasons but not excuses. Ditto the extenuating circumstance that I
have little interest in or knowledge of Spiders.

On the plus side, my two Behr of America, Inc. Replacement Parts Lists, #8212,
"Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce 1981", dated 5-12-81, and # 8213, "Alfa Romeo Spider
Veloce 1982", dated 6-15-82, eight and nine pages respectively, include full
parts lists (both Alfa part numbers and Behr part numbers, exploded diagrams
of the mechanical installation parts and of the compressors, belt path
diagrams, and photos of groups of off-engine parts (wiring harnesses, hoses,
console adapters, duct assemblies, clamps, grommets, etc ad infinitum), and I
can photocopy either or both for anyone who wants it/them badly enuf to cover
copying and postage.

Caveat: the "Alfa Part Numbers" in these two lists are not in the full Alfa
part number format, don't know how useful they would be.

I 'think' these are Alfa-approved kits for dealer installation, but whether
that means AR SpA approved or ARI approved I can't guess. Behr is a Fort
Worth, Texas company, and I believe I remember someone (Biba?) mentioning a
customer who insisted on genuine Alfa parts from Italy for the repair of his
A/C system, and it took forever because Milan had to get the parts from Texas.
While trying to find that Biba? post I ran into one from Doug Harris
(dharris@domain.elided) which discussed the installation on his '77 Spider:

"But all this has me wondering about the genesis of my car's air conditioning
and whether anyone can shed some light.  As far as I can tell from available
literature, all non-catalytic '77 Spiders (like mine) had air pumps.  Mine
doesn't.  With the air conditioner compressor above and to the driver's side
of the water pump, where would the air pump go?  (I've read on the Digest that
some Alfettas had the air pump outboard of the SPICA pump, but I don't see how
that could be on a Spider.)  My exhaust manifold has plugs in the holes where
I presume the air pump would connect.  My guess is that the New Jersey dealer
that first sold the car, in the days of performance-minded denial when folks
still thought they could modify away emission controls, removed the air pump
and installed the air conditioning compressor.  (It does appear to be an Alfa
Romeo rig, and the car came with a boatload of literature, including an Alfa
booket on maintaining the air conditioning system, when I bought it last
Summer.)"

Another data point? Dunno. I better exit while I can.

John H.
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