SM IE: Work on the air conditioning system

As planned, I worked on the air conditioning system. The goal was to replace the original compressor by a modern and more gentle one (for the timing chains), replace the drying cartridge and then try to put the system back in working order.

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I’m going to install the Sankyo compressor that was installed in my other SM, that way I’ll know if it works

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After cleaning, it’s better

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Here is the original York compressor. Even in good shape, it has to be replaced, but this one is jammed

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A few minutes are enough to get rid of it

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This is now a useless and defective item 😉

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This is the bracket that was made for the Sankyo compressor, after a “chocolate brown” paint

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I initially thought that the exit pipe (here on the left, not yet connected) would be too short, but finally it was long enough

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Here is the compressor installed and connected

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The hard work was the adjustment of the compressor position to get a good belt alignment

I also had a problem with the air conditioning fan, which was working only when he wanted, and he usually didn’t want to. I quickly found the problem, it was a bad contact on the connection of the capacitor associated with the fan, because when I connected the fan directly, without the capacitor, everything was working correctly.

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The problem is here, the right front fender has to be removed

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Here is the connection of the capacitor

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I remove everything and I take a plug from a wire I have in stock

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Here is the result, with new wires and connections reinstalled

Once the compressor installed and the fan back in working order, I went to see an air conditioning specialist. He couldn’t find the right drying cartridge, which must be replaced, but he found me a part distributor who let me search in his catalogs and I found the right part using the catalog pictures. The day after, the cartridge was delivered and a few days later I was back with the air conditioning specialist.

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He started by lifting the car. Then we removed the front grill to have a good access to the drying cartridge

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It gave me a good opportunity to inspect the under body

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Removal of the old dryer cartridge

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Installation of the new one

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Then came the time to fill the circuit with Nitrogen, to search for leaks

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As soon as the pressure grew, we heard a leak on the compressor exit pipe

There was some progress but it doesn’t work yet. I’m glad that I found a drying cartridge quickly, it’s not easy here because of course local part distributors never find any reference to the SM in their part catalogs. But there is a leak, fortunately this one was easy to locate.

So I need to replace the leaking pipe, I’ll probably replace all pipes, but the problem is that I’m not able to remove this pipe for the moment because its connection on the evaporator is made of brass and could brake easily if I apply the required force with a wrench.