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Troubleshooting AC and Heater Problems
Content is not complete
Heater and A/C problems were the FIRST things I tackled
when I bought my 77 about 2 1/2 years ago. Everything was screwed up but
I got it working.
Even when the A/C is working properly as mine is, I
feel it is still not great by today's standards.
I had all the following problems at the same time to solve:
- Vacuum leaks causing flapper valves not to operate properly
- Bad hot water shutoff vacuum switch followed by an incorrect, unusable
switch
- Bad hot water shutoff valve
- Bad AC Compressor
- Bad AC Hoses
- Bad AC Receiver/Dryer
- Leaking heater core
- Bad High Speed Blower Relay
- Bad NEW heater control mechanism
- Leaking heater box seals
So I've been there and done most of it.
Freon
Have you checked the Freon level?
Do you see any bubbles in the sight glass? Right fender, inside, inline
with the pressure hose along and just below the edge of the hood. Clean
it and take a look. There should be no bubbles.
After all the repairs, I vacuumed and refilled with
R134.
Electrical.
To verify that high is really high, you can connect a wire to bypass the
high speed blower relay under the hood. You can unplug the top connector
on the relay and make this temporary connection. Connect the red wire to
the purple wire on the high speed blower relay. With this temporary
connection, this is as fast as things will blow. If there's a change to a
higher speed, the relay or the trigger to the relay might be bad.
If the low and medium settings are not working, it's likely to be the
switch or some connection problem to the resistors that slow the blower.
The second is probably the case. When you slide the lever to Max A/C,
there's a relay on the firewall that kicks in to bypass the resistors and
make the blower run full speed. The connector for the resistors is under
the hood near the right hood spring. They are attached to the heater box.
The 4 wires colors are Brown, Green, Lt. Blue, and Dark Blue. The relay
for high speed blower is just above them on the firewall.
The 25A Heater A/C fuse is probably good IF you have full speed on Max
A/C. That's where the power comes from to kick the relay.
The connection into the switch (yellow wire) is good if you have any
speed to the blower in any position (vent, heat, a/c). From the switch,
three wires run to the resistors under the hood. This output goes to the
relay and on to the blower.
If the wiring checks out, maybe the blower motor is weak. I think I've
seen articles on how to replace it with something stronger.
The complete electrical troubleshooting guide is on my website. The A/C
and Heater stuff is on pages 16 and 17.
Vacuum
Vacuum leaks and binding doors can cause flappers to not close, not close
completely, or be flakey. Air doesn't flow where it should.
There's a hot water shutoff valve to keep the water out of the core when
the temperature is in the cold position. The on/off valve is on the
heater box in side the car. The shutoff is inline on one of the heater
hoses. Vacuum closes it. When it sticks due to age/rust, it usually
sticks open. If you have heat, you have an open valve. With the
temperature control set to full cold, you should feel vacuum if you
disconnect it from the inline shutoff valve. If not, adjust or replace
the switch inside the car. Important. You cannot buy a replacement
vacuum switch. The one people are selling is for the wiper door on
earlier chrome bumper cars. The spring is too strong and will keep you
from moving the properly adjusted cable to the cold position. Someone
posted a tip where they use the old spring on a new switch. I decided to
convert to an electrical shutoff system. Either is fine.
The temperature control is by cable. It might be out of adjustment. You
might be blending some hot air into the system. If this cable is not
adjusted properly, it won't activate the switch above. There's an
adjusting mechanism inline on the cable about midway down the length. You
might have to remove the right side console panel to find it. You twist
to shorten/lengthen the cable.
On Max A/C, internal air is recirculated. On normal, external air is
brought in. This is done with a vacuum controlled valve on the right side
near the passengers foot behind the kick plate. If this isn't
functioning, you might not be getting the recirculation you expect on Max.
An upstream vacuum leak can be a pain to find. I had one of these.
Flapper valves were not functioning properly. Turned out to be a leaky
hot water shutoff switch. I replaced the mechanical vacuum switch with a
microswitch and a vacuum solenoid. Perfect now. I'll have to document
this.
With A/C, this vent is the intake for recirculating air.
No fresh air flows through it. All fresh air goes through the dash
vents. If it is open, you are recirculating what's inside the car. This
happens on MAX AC only.
Any vacuum leak is deadly to the A/C on this car. You've got to fix it or
none of the flappers work. All vacuum comes through a tiny tube. It
enters near the heater box and there's a T connection next to the hot
water shutoff switch inside the car on top the heater box. In my car,
this valve was leaking slightly. Even a tiny leak bleeds off the vacuum
before it can open a valve, door, etc.
The vacuum leak might be causing the defrost door to flip in the wrong
direction or the vent / floor to go the wrong way. I can't recall which
direction is the default (no vacuum). I'll see if I can find my notes on
this. My leak was causing the door between vent and floor to operate
slowly or not completely. It was a mess.
Vacuum
Diagrams from 77 Assembly Manual
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