What was the first year air conditioning on M-Bs

[mbdoc]

All of the 280SL's had dealer installed A/C units.

MB didn't install them, we DID.

Several "BIG" boxes of parts. And 12-15 hours later...somewhat A/C

[Mark DiSilvestro]

One of the reasons I replaced my '72 220 with a '72 250 was that, with both having AC, the 6-cylinder 250 engine was actually easier to work on than the 220's four. Because of the four's additional vibrations, it's AC bracket was larger and bolted to the waterpump. Also the four's airfilter canister was down behind the right fender, trapped by the very stiff 'Aeroquip' wire-reinforced AC hoses, making axcess to the airfilter and alternator almost impossible. For the year that I owned that 220, I only checked the airfilter when I was forced to move the whole AC nightmare out of the way to change the waterpump. At the time, it was my only car with a decent AC, so discarding the compressor and bracket wasn't an option.

On my '72 250, the six-cylinder engine had a pancake-type airfilter housing atop the twin carbs, and the AC compressor mounting was less complicated. With only three bolts to attach to the engine, the compressor bracket was much easier to move out of the way. As the bracket wasn't bolted to the waterpump, the waterpump could also be changed without disturbing the AC.


Happy Motoring, Mark

[todds]

Is the bracket setup the same across all the sohc sixes?

I saw a york->sanden adaptor for big bux on ebay recently, no bids. Is it better to use that or just make a bracket up for a sanden from aftermarket universal stuff such as that from vintageair.com or hotrodair.com?

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Originally Posted by todds

Is the bracket setup the same across all the sohc sixes?

I saw a york->sanden adaptor for big bux on ebay recently, no bids. Is it better to use that or just make a bracket up for a sanden from aftermarket universal stuff such as that from vintageair.com or hotrodair.com?

I thought the Sanden conversion kits were availible at a reasonable price without getting them bid up on ebay. If vintage-air/hotrod-air have useable adapters that might be one way to go. In any case, I already have a couple of Sanden compressors, so I'd probably make my own adapters from suitable pieces of angle-iron to attach a Sanden compressor to the York bracket.

Ironically, many years ago I adapted a Sears hang-on AC kit to a friends 1976 Mazda Miser wagon. AC equipped Mazdas at the ime used Sankyo (Sanden) compressors, but the Sears kit came with a York. However, the small factory AC drive pulley that came on the Mazda engine, turned the York compressor relatively slowly. While AC performance at idle was a bit weak, the under-gearing allowed the 4-cylider Mazda engine to handle the York compressor with very little engine drag or effect on the stock cooling system.

Many years ago, soon after I acquired my Ponton 180b, I met this German character at one of the local thrift-stores I used to visit. He had a Ponton 190Db with a hang-on AC unit. Unfortunately, I never got a look at his compressor installation, so several years later when I decided to ad AC to my 180b, I had to figure it out on my own. My Ponton's cooling system plumbing, radiator clearance, and tight spacing between the engine and front stabilizer bar prevented my using a Fintail York compressor bracket and engine AC drive-pulley, which were the only vintage Mercedes AC engine-hardware items I could find at the time.
So I fabricated some brackets to fasten a salvaged Sankyo Mazda AC compressor to the driver's side of the engine. To drive the AC belt, I bolted a modified Honda Civic waterpump pully directly to the cast-iron harmonic balancer.
I'm certain that if the AC system I put together had used a much smaller engine drive pulley, AC performance would still have been adequate, without the severe strain I experienced on my Ponton's engine and cooling system.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[todds]

Mazda Miser?!?! Now there's a name I'm sure the marketing exec's would like to pretend never existed. Right up there with the Ford Cheapskate and Kia Iron-Wallet. Actually I guess M-B is partly to blame for the elimination of names for cars. I always thought it cool that some of the first big BMW's were called "bavaria". Thanks for the great post and good advice re: tuning the compressor pulley size!

[Mark DiSilvestro]

The Miser/808 series cars actually saved Mazda. After Mazda's initial success selling mostly rotary-engine powered cars and trucks, the first oil-crunch almost killed them when it turned out that rotary fuel mileage was pretty lousy, at least when compared to contemporary Toyotas and Datsuns. The early Mazda rotaries also had some durability problems, so Mazda began importing some of their piston-engined models, eventually relegating the rotary to their RX-7 sportscar.

As for anyone considering adding AC to any vintage car, especially if the engine is small, and a cooling-system upgrade isn't practical, try to under-gear the compressor drive as much as possible, either by fitting a smaller drive-pulley on the engine, or a larger driven-pulley on the compressor. At the shop where I used to work many years ago, we had a customer with a '67 Mustang and an aftermarket Sears AC unit. He was having problems with the engine overheating, and his compressor clutch was beginning to fail as well. I was able to find and bolt a larger-diameter replacement clutch & pulley onto his York compressor, and solve both problems.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[t walgamuth]

I would take the york compressor and throw it as far as possible over the hill.

They are very marginal and are not really compatible with the new freon.

Vintage air offers brackets to adapt the sanden onto where a york originally lived.

I have a 280e motor in the garage which I bought in Texas which has something different than a york compressor on it. I don't know what brand it is but the only label I can find on it is Mercedes benz. It looks to be 1/3 the mass of the york unit.

Tom

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Except for the noise and vibration (some PO had discarded the brace that connected the bottom of the compressor to the engine block) for 15 years I had no complaint with the York's performance in my '72 250, until the system finally sprung a leak somewhere in the dash. Of course for all those years I was running R12.
If I was installing an AC today, I would use one of the modern axial or rotary compressors, most likely the Sanden unit which, unlike the Nippondenso, actually carries a small reserve of refrigerant oil.

Happy Motoring, Mark