EA81 Brat A/C wiring hell

[dfoyl]

I'm in the later stages of retrofitting an A/C unit out of a Leone (1984) into my Brat (1989), and have all the mechanical connections done but the wiring has me stumped.

 

From the earlier (83-85) cars I've seen there is a completely seperate circuit that runs from the back of the A/C unit into the back left corner of the engine bay, which connects into a longer length of cable that has two connectors going into the main wiring loom, and another wire that extends around to the front left corner, spirals around the main wiring loom under both fans, has a connector for the thermo-fan and then continues around to the front right corner to the compressor.

 

The trouble is, on my 89 Brat the connectors that should hook the A/C into the main loom don't exist and I am thinking Subaru changed sometime during the mid-to-late 80s and included the A/C into the main loom.

 

(I am using front left corner, etc, in place of front drivers side because my car is RHD and most readers here are LHD, but the connections should be pretty much the same with luck!).

 

Any readers out there with both an early (say 83) and late (say 87) EA81-based Brat who can check and compare their A/C wiring circuits to prove/disprove my theory ?

 

Thanks.

 

Dean.

[daeron]

bump, because some of these people CAN help you I am sure. not me :- )

[dfoyl]

Thanks for the bump. I went back to the donor car today (83-84 coupe with all the options), and the wiring is different because it had power windows. There's a big block of relays sitting on the LHS shock absorber mount and most of the connections now match up. I'm not planning on fitting power windows to my Brat but I'll have to use the same wiring.

 

Tip 1 for anybody planning on retrofitting A/C - try to use an early A/C system. I had a look at a '82 Brat with no other options and the wiring is much simpler than on the Leone.

 

Tip 2 - make sure you get absolutely everything from the donor. I have mixed-and-matched some pieces (ie. condensor (because the donors had a whack in it), thermo-fan (was gone from the donor), and they don't match up. I've seen 3 different compressors, three different driers mounted in different spots (either on the side or front of the engine bay), and two different condensors (the lower fitting comes out either vertical or horizontal, and it's a *************** to mix across and then run the formed pipe from the compressor to the condensor).

 

Tip 3 - I'd strongly recommend pulling the A/C belt off during the cooler months (for you guys in Washington that's about 11 months ), as the EA81 runs a lot better without the extra load. For non-A/C cars I'd recommend getting rid of the crank-driven fan altogether unless you live down south - when I pulled it from mine the car felt a lot less sluggish, and I've had it running on 90+ degree days no problem (the thermo kicks in fine).

 

Dean.

 

bump, because some of these people CAN help you I am sure. not me :- )