Air conditioning question

[Atom Eyes]

My trusty one-owner '89 K5 Scottsdale is finally literally falling apart and no longer road-worthy due to her terminal cancer, with a restoration not seeming at all cost-effective. I purchased a beautiful '90 model three months ago which was ordered new by a suburban school district as a plow truck nearly the same way I ordered mine, with the exception of the factory air. Now, I may be insane, but it would seem to me that it would be possible to swap all those parts with no problems. I am not looking forward to a typical sweltering East Coast summer without air. The last time I suffered like that was in my first car, a '72 Chevelle, back in 1983.

Has anyone here ever attempted this? Thanks.

 

[mosesburb]

It is definitely possible and not too difficult either. I have not done it myself, but a buddy of mine did. I don't recall the specifics, but I think he did it in less than a day. Being that you have the donor vehicle you are set. Remove all the heater components from the Sub, then remove all the A/C components from the donor and install in the Sub. Slight trimming on the hole in the firewall *may* be necessary, but not much if any. The power feed wire from the fuseblock will need to be hooked up to the A/C controls, but I think that is it in terms of wiring (both A/C and heater only use harnesses that are separate from the main vehicle harness, but both use one wire from the fuseblock to provide power to the control head). Check out your vehicles--you'll quickly see what I mean.

 

[dremu]

You don't specify and we get confused when you say "suburban" as an adjective.

Are they both Blazers/Burbs, i.e. not pickups? Besides charging the system, the only serious PITA I see is the heater box and heater core.

-- A

 

[lectric80]

I have done it, and about the only pointer I can give is to have the system evacuated before moving it. As mosesburb said, you basically need everything out of the Sub. I would say to replace the condensor in front of the grill, as newer ones tend to have more surface area to cool the newer r134. When I did it, it took me about an three hours to move everything, then another couple to get it all wired, vacuum plumbed, and tested. Then I charged the system and it was good to go, never gave me any problems afterwards.