Electrical: Avanti Air Conditioning Puzzle

[tluz]

Hi, Guys,

I tried this thread once before and drew a blank, but I thought I'd try again just in case.

I am in the homestretch reassembling this bad boy using a new wiring harness from Studebakers West. I could not for the life of me figure out where the A/C evaporator wiring hookups on the harness are. By process of elimination I finally figured out that there are none! I'm gathering that air conditioning was somewhat of an afterthought at Studebaker because it is barely mentioned in the manuals.

The shop manual contains no reference to the a/c wiring and neither does the parts book. The electrical schematic in the shop manual is a/c free. The parts book contains two ambiguous drawings but no clear picture. My pre-demolition photos, which sort of match the parts book, are inconclusive, and the box I kept all the parts in has a handful of the seemingly jerry-rigged connections that came with the car. The build sheet notes that the car came with factory air.

So how does the wiring work? The blower motor has one power and one ground wire. There's a mystery black wire with a black male plug connector attached to the side of the case. I assume this is a ground for something. The on/off switch has four spade connectors and the temperature rheostat has three.

If anybody has even the smallest amount of intel on this it's more than I've got. Thanks for looking at this and all comments are welcome.

Tom

[JDP]

Hi, Guys,

I tried this thread once before and drew a blank, but I thought I'd try again just in case.

I am in the homestretch reassembling this bad boy using a new wiring harness from Studebakers West. I could not for the life of me figure out where the A/C evaporator wiring hookups on the harness are. By process of elimination I finally figured out that there are none! I'm gathering that air conditioning was somewhat of an afterthought at Studebaker because it is barely mentioned in the manuals.

The shop manual contains no reference to the a/c wiring and neither does the parts book. The electrical schematic in the shop manual is a/c free. The parts book contains two ambiguous drawings but no clear picture. My pre-demolition photos, which sort of match the parts book, are inconclusive, and the box I kept all the parts in has a handful of the seemingly jerry-rigged connections that came with the car. The build sheet notes that the car came with factory air.

So how does the wiring work? The blower motor has one power and one ground wire. There's a mystery black wire with a black male plug connector attached to the side of the case. I assume this is a ground for something. The on/off switch has four spade connectors and the temperature rheostat has three.

If anybody has even the smallest amount of intel on this it's more than I've got. Thanks for looking at this and all comments are welcome.

Tom

The black bullet connector goes to the magnetic clutch on the compressor, the hot wire goes to the ignition side of the switch, and the ground is ground and you're are done.

[Rerun]

Hi, Tom

Glad to hear that you're in the home stretch. Will we possibly see the end results at York?

As far as the A/C, the wiring is pretty simple. I would connect the power lead of the fan switch to the ACC side of the ignition switch , rather than the IGN. Basically, the fan switch/rheostat (lower knob) has the power in, and two lugs out. One is the variable voltage that goes to the blower fan. The other is full voltage that is on whenever the fan switch is on. This second lug connects to the thermostatic switch (upper switch that has the tube going into the evaporator). This switch sets the temperature. The output of the thermostat switch goes to the clutch on the compressor. They did not use any pressure switch to shut off the compressor in the event of Freon loss. If you haven't charged the system yet, I would consider installing one in the wiring to the clutch. Also, if you have not already done so, install a new dryer in the system before charging, Vintage Air and other vendors would have what you need there.

[JDP]

Jim is correct of course on the wiring, I was thinking about the non Avanti setup. I guess the factory would have hooked it to the accessory side, of the switch on all the cars too.

[tluz]

John and Jim, thank you so much for this. It's been driving me nuts.

As for York, I'd love to bring the new kid down there. It all depends on my locating the elusive stainless trim and other unobtainium for the door panels. Everything else seems to be on target.

I'm finding that interior fit and finish are more challenging than I anticipated. But of course, that's SOP on this project...

[tluz]

Hi, Jim,

I sent you a p/m.

Tom