Air con removal and off road advice Range Rover

[alex77]

I'm going to remove the air con from my 94 range rover classic as it has no gas in it and the air con condenser rad is stopping air flow to the actual rad causing overheating
Has any one done this any tips etc
am going to use the fans on the condenser rad as extra fans for the rad as I mainly use the car for offroading.
Any other tips and fixes that are cheap for the range rover that anyone knows about would be good

[scaryoldcortina]

It isn't as simple as it used to be, new DEFRA/eec regs came into force this month prohibiting anyone but a certified MACS (mobile air-conditioning system) technician from working on aircon so to remain legal you should get someone to degas and disconnect the pipes for you. after that, you can just remove it all yourself.

[alex77]

okey dokey will wait till pay day

[MightyMork]

tip 1 - rund a bead of vasaline round the dizzy cap and plug leads. condensation after going through water will play havoc for a fun day.

[Deleted]

If it's already degassed, you'll be fine. The main safety issue would have been the pressurised system and the environmental issue would have been collecting the old refrigerant.

All you have is a simple bit of spannering to remove the redundant parts, it's all dead straight forward.

With regards cheap offroading tweaks; make sure all your breathers (axles, gearbox and transfer box) are routed high up so they don't draw water when you're in the deep stuff. You should also have the waiding plug fitted on the bellhousing - the small threaded hole at the bottom of the bellhousing. Looks like you're already pretty well geared up for offroading with your truck anyway - what sort of tips were you after?

Joe

[spunkymonkey]

Jul 22, 2010 16:11:47 GMT scaryoldcortina said:

It isn't as simple as it used to be, new DEFRA/eec regs came into force this month prohibiting anyone but a certified MACS (mobile air-conditioning system) technician from working on aircon so to remain legal you should get someone to degas and disconnect the pipes for you. after that, you can just remove it all yourself.

Given that the OP is planning on removing completely rather than repairing, didn't all the gas already escape when that pipe burst after he accidentally caught it with a hacksaw / grinder / insert sharp tool of choice?

[alex77]

just some words of wisdom really the pay and play I goto has lots of big money build 90s with diesels so the knowledge there is pretty much throw money at thngs
so was looking to see if there was anthing that people had done too there classics that had worked. I bought my truck as is to play with as as my old one got pretty much distroyed as I offroaded with limited mods (see sig) then found out that structurely it was all bodged with fibre glass and filler ! looked nice tho

[scaryoldcortina]

That is entirely up to him. I'm just careful about what I recommend on a public forum

[spunkymonkey]

Totally agree - you should always be careful when working with sharp tools! In fact, had I known he was working round there I would have felt duty bound to mention the risk before it happened ;D

[Deleted]

Ok, a cheap mod for the back suspension (which I did on my 90, but it's all the same). Make up some simple dislocation cones; I coppied the Gwyn Lewis design ones, as you can make them from 25mm flat bar. Then crank your rear arms using a hydraulic pipe bender to give more downward travel before the bush restricts it. You can then relocate the rear dampers to allow more downward travel, but it's probably worth buying some extended stroke ones - I've got 11"ones and they were only a couple of quid more than standard. Front ones are a bit trickier to DIY, but the front suspension design doesn't lend itself to much extra travel anyway.

Have a butchers at protection and suspension stuff online, loads of it is really easy to fabricate with a decent welder, a grinder, a vice and a big hammer!

Joe

[alex77]

all good advice thank you

[west4x4]

Removing the aircon condenser probably wont help the over heating no doubt your rad will be needing recoring or replacing

[crazycruzer]

the only issue i found when removing the aircon from my RRC was that to be sure to seal the pipework into the cockpit otherwise you will have water getting into the passenger footwell like i had! I also baged and tuperwared my relays and fuses i had under the bonnet to stop the water getting thru (Note i also had the gas ecu under there too!)

[Mr S]

I'm not 100% sure on the later ones like yours, but my '86 had the main ECU under the seat - I'd relocate that or at least waterproof it - as if you go wading through deepish water, it can get in... I also used a rubber glove over the distributor, 2 HT leads per finger (each finger cable tied, and the thumb for the coil lead), with plenty of silicone grease inside to keep it waterproof.

Mine still hated water though, I was going to megajolt it, and when I get another one, I will do exactly that!

[megzy]

hey

I wood remove all assioated parts of the air com but leave the compressor in place and make ya self an onbarod air con compressor so u can pump your tires up and down very easy to do all u need is some pipe and tank

that compressor you have pumps out at 6.8bar if I remeber rightly. I ll see if I can find the thread on lra and lr4x4 for doing it

as for advice mines got a 200tdi in it but take lots of wd40 brill for driving water out. v8 gets very hot so twin fans or viscous. make sure ya coolent level is good and that the rad is nice flushed through and in good condition. make sure there no mud in the fins

here is the thread
forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=2115

make ya self a snorkle out of some flexi pipe

flexi pipe the exhasut to get it out the way

have some cool off roading pics from my recent trip to the plane