A/C brackets

yes......

Ray

Georgia Studebaker wrote:

Thanks, Ray.

Isn't a vendor selling repros for almost $200?

Check your email Dave... If we are talking compressor brackets and the "mount and drive" system for the compressor, there have been SEVERAL different ones and quite a few aftermarket ones to boot. ALL the factory ones drive around an extra pulley on the water pump. Some of the aftermarket ones use an idler pulley on the left side of the engine and do not go around the water pump. If you are stuck on originality, then you need the kind that drives around the water pump and uses the York compressor. If you are building a system from scratch, the pony up the bucks to Vintage and don't fiddle with the factory style stuff. Uses the Sanden compressor, idler pulley on the left side, doesn't drive around the water pump, looks and fits nice. Studebaker George

The bracket for a R-1 Avanti is different. The Studebaker factory air bracket is a dumb design. The idler pulley slides in a slot on the bracket. It must be loosened to install the belt then pulled and held tight while trying to tighten a nut on the idler pulley shaft on the inside of the bracket- very difficult without three articulated hands. A Mark IV aftermarket bracket is much better. It has a pivoting idler pulley arm- easy to adjust. That sounds like what Chuck is describing. On the either kind the heater hose has to be re-worked. On the factory type a plug is put in the water manifold where the heater hose nipple was. The another hole has to be drilled and tapped on the other side of the manifold. After market units generally just put a fitting in place of the plate on the back of the right hand head. Paul Johnson

I'm still not too enamored with the factory installation on anything but Show cars and for those that the owners just "want it that way". I much prefer a Sanden/Sankyo 508 Rotary... Then customizing a bracket for an Alternator up in the "V" instead. They do make an adapter for a SD-508 to bolt onto the stock York Bracket. The adapter needs slight modification (one corner needs removed to clear the valve cover)... but it's pretty easy.

Here's 2- webpages dedicated to AC installations.

My "Preferred" method:

and using an original bracket w/Sanden Compressor: (Jeff DeWitt's '59 Lark) I need to add comments to the photo-pages.... so little time.... Ray

Georgia Studebaker wrote:

I missed the first post on this thread. Ray, are you making some brackets to sell? I was just about to get some steel and try to make one. I picked up a York to Sanden adaptor plate on ebay for $39. Gives a nice adjustment forward and back. I have an original bracket, compressor, and hang down unit from a '61 Lark. I was going to use the bracket as a template, I don't need the section of the bracket that sits on the drivers side of the engine. I guess that was for the original pulley set up. And the Stude bracket doesn't fit over the thermostat housing on my 289. I did not want to cut the bracket to fit because I am sure someone would want it for an other project. I had planned on scraping together my own bracket, but I would rather buy one with proper welds, etc. My welding skills are poor to none.

Tony in Austin

Vintage air makes a Sanden bracket for Stude V8s. I got mine last summer, well made.

The Vintage kit does need a little "tweaking" here and there, but does fit well overall. If you are going to use it, get the rear discharge Sanden compressor (VW application) from them also. When I make up my systems, I use Vintage's mount and drive, condesor and misc. parts from Classic in Tampa, and an original evaporator or a nice older one from ebay. I make my own hoses now that I have a hydraulic crimper. Studebaker George