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Random question about York compressors

muddermilitia

muddermilitia

ThatTrazerGuy
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I'm a ways away from tackling this project, but I'm bored and thought I might start looking into it. Does anybody know if there is a way to engage the clutch on a York compressor with 6 volts? Or if there is a different clutch out there that would work?

I have a 1952 Dodge Coronet, still 6-volt positive ground. Eventually I would like to do air bag suspension in the back. (front is low enough for me and I like that '50s tail dragger look) I have 2 York compressors to play with.

I have thought about just mounting a 12-volt battery in the trunk but not sure how long that would last running the york compressor. I am already planning on using it to run my flamethrower exhaust. So not sure if it would be up to the task to run both items before having to be charged up.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. I have never worked on a York before but know there's a quite a few people on here that have and may have some tips for me.

Thanks
 
i think they make them for positive ground setups too, but not sure if the coil on the york grounds through the compressor, or if you can ground it separately.
 
It says "not reccomended for power door locks,AC clutches,etc"..so it's probably not gutsy enough to power a electric clutch coil..

They must have had 6V A/C clutches in the 50's,they had air conditioning in quite a few older cars like Packards--I cant recall if Packards were positive ground or not though....I'd imagine a coil could be custom wound, if you had the funds to pay for one...
 
Step up/step down converters are all over the place, just need to know the load the clutch will pull to make sure you get one rated to work and not fail quickly.
 
michael0584 said:
positive ground
http://www.classiccarstereos.com/pr...OhGCheCcUTfHUyxwJDavgLzuvbO9dVzp6gaAoh08P8HAQ
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, I don't think that particular one will work for an A/C clutch though like diesel4me said.
diesel4me said:
It says "not reccomended for power door locks,AC clutches,etc"..so it's probably not gutsy enough to power a electric clutch coil..

They must have had 6V A/C clutches in the 50's,they had air conditioning in quite a few older cars like Packards--I cant recall if Packards were positive ground or not though....I'd imagine a coil could be custom wound, if you had the funds to pay for one...
Click to expand...
My dad's friend's 48 Packard has positive ground. That might be something that could work

dyeager535 said:
Step up/step down converters are all over the place, just need to know the load the clutch will pull to make sure you get one rated to work and not fail quickly.
Click to expand...
Thanks I will keep an eye out
 
No reason you couldn't use a DC-DC converter to charge a small 12V gel cell. You could also use a pair of relays to put a 6V gel cell in parallel with the car battery, then switch it to series when you need the 12V. That's assuming you can find 6V relays - I don't know if they're common or not.

Another novel idea would be to re-wind a clutch coil. Two windings in parallel should get the flux up comparable to a single on 12V. Or use lower resistance wire and do twice as many turns.
 
Lots of good ideas so far but I'd like to take a step back and ask what the intended purpose is? If it's just to air up a couple small bags on the back of the car I think a York is overkill (even if you have one laying around).
I'd buy a cheap compressor (shoot you might be able to find a 6v compressor) and let it fill some tanks and be done.
 
82355 said:
Switch the whole car to 12 Volt?

Martin
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That is the number 1 suggestion I have found when researching this topic on the net. There is a fair amount of work involved in doing that conversion and it's not something that I am comfortable with tackling myself. To pay a shop to do it is pretty astronomical. I had a quote of almost $4k from one place! The car's ignition system wiring is in need of replacement anyway, but the rest of the wiring on the car is still in pretty good shape.

I have yet to find a 6 volt compressor available online. But I did just find this discussion on a studebaker forum about a guy wanting to put A/C in his 6-volt car. http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?21533-6-Volt-A-C-CLUTCH-QUESTION

The last post was: "To clarify this. The early 6 and 12 volt air conditioner compressors had no clutch and ran all the time. These had a bypass valve to regulate the temperature. High side to low side bypass valve. In the winter time you removed the belt. I seem to remember someone used a 12 Volt York compressor to replace the one in a 6 volt car and it worked fine on 6 volt."

Now if only I found find the vehicle he is talking about in the last sentence.
 
A 12V conversion is just new bulbs, some gauge adapters and a new alternator, no?

When your 6V generator is running, what is the system voltage? Maybe it's high enough to engage the clutch you have. Try it out with a bench supply or something. I bet if it will pull it, it will also hold the load. Perhaps something can be shimmed or machined down to reduce the gap in the "un-engaged" state so there is a little less distance to pull in. If this could make the difference, it would be the simplest set-up.

Any chance there's room to wind additional coil wire around the outside of the existing coil? You would need enough that it's a couple Ohms of resistance. Just a few turns would just pop fuses. The two coils would go in parallel. If you get the polarity wrong, the magnetic pull will be weaker; get it right and it's stronger.
 
Another idea is to get a cheap cigarette lighter compressor unit and try it out on 7V or whatever your generator makes. You don't need a lot of CFM, right?
 
I would switch the whole car to 12V too, its 66 years old, it can't be very easy to find all those 6V parts to replace I wouldn't think so an upgrade to 12V now should make it easier to maintain down the road. Let alone a stereo, ignition, bulbs, etc. Most of the wires should be large enough already, the same watts will be half the amps at 12V. Although I imagine 66 year old wires probably aren't in very good shape either.
 
jekquistk5 said:
sell me the york and you wont have to worry about it. :whistle::whistle:
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I have 2 yorks. One for the trazer and one for this :D
Blue85 said:
Another idea is to get a cheap cigarette lighter compressor unit and try it out on 7V or whatever your generator makes. You don't need a lot of CFM, right?
Click to expand...
Blue85 said:
Power Tank?
Click to expand...
I'm totally new to air suspension so I'm not sure how much is required. Another thought is to run a Nitrogen setup. No electrical is required at all for that. But then you have to get the tank refilled, and that seems annoying to me. I would rather run it off a battery in the trunk and stick a charger on it after every trip.

Once car show season is back up, I hope to run into this group of guys I have seen before. Theres like 3 or 4 cars all running similar setups. You can see copper tubeing running along the floor from the trunk up to the dash. 4 gauges & several manual shut off valves to control the airflow. At one of the last shows of the season i saw one of the cars had their hood up and I noticed a York compressor.

folkenheath said:
I would switch the whole car to 12V too, its 66 years old, it can't be very easy to find all those 6V parts to replace I wouldn't think so an upgrade to 12V now should make it easier to maintain down the road. Let alone a stereo, ignition, bulbs, etc. Most of the wires should be large enough already, the same watts will be half the amps at 12V. Although I imagine 66 year old wires probably aren't in very good shape either.
Click to expand...
Surprisingly, I haven't had a hard time finding mechanical parts for this car yet. Sheet metal, is a different story
 
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