MI: Vintage Air

[old51sedan]

I have a 69 non-air truck with a 292 six. Has anyone got a six with the vintage air? Do they also have the compressor brackets? Anyone have a picture of this installed? Should I remove the heater box and etc. and shave the firewall for a better look? Appreciate any suggestions.

[Kennuck]

Vintage will supply whatever brackets you need. The old heater box goes away and you can fill in the firewall. There will be 4 tubes sticking through the firewall everything goes inside the cab behind the glove box. The glove box does get quite a bit smaller and they supply the new insert for the glove box too.

[KevinR]

Bracket set is Vintage Air part number 146036. (I had adapted this kit for a PS pump on a 250)

[RichardJ]

The 146036 would be a bad choice in my opinion. Passenger side is the preferred location.
Look at bracket Part #: 15249-VCB. They don't have a picture and the description is messed up.
https://www.vintageair.com/instructi.../15249-VCB.pdf

It says it is for a 250 and won't fit with HEI. The 292 is 1.75" taller, which gives more room. I don't know if the 1975 6 cyl HEI with External coil will fit. Myself, I would give it a try and modify the bracket if needed.
I made my own bracket, which is similar, so I can't say if the Vin Air bracket will or not.

Their kits includes a plate that covers up the holes from the old heater.

I've helped install a couple of Vin Air, but they weren't on trucks.
When you use their kits in conjunction with original factory controllers, either AC or heat only, they provide you with linear, slide resistors that you have to attach to the control arms on the back of your original controller.
Really hokey setup. I mean really hokey.

I would op for one of their control heads. Costly and has their name on the face, but a cleaner looking setup.

[KevinR]

Richard, that does look better. I hadn’t seen that set before, thanks (for future reference for my truck!)

[old51sedan]

Thanks so much for the replies, also thanks to Richard for the pictures, that's exactly what I needed as I believe mounting the compressor on the right side is the ideal spot for it. The Alt. and PS are on the left side already. Do I need to have a 3 grove pulley on the front of the crank or can I use the 2 groved one?
After looking at the diagrams I'm thinking I should try and buy a 3 grove pulley I know of on a 292 in the junk yard. Guy wants to sell whole engine, but I'm trying to talk him into just selling the pulley separate.

[RichardJ]

Before I added the AC, I had lost two balancers. The first one lost the outer ring while driving down the fwy. On the next one the ring dropped to the ground when I started the engine.
I found a single pulley to bolt on the front of the hub to trap the balancer ring and keep it from flying off. later it became the AC pulley. Witness marks painted across the outer pulley and the balancer lets me know if the balancer ring has come loose and slipped.

When looking in the wrecking yards, don't forget to look at '70s X-Body Nova, Apollo, Omega and Ventura. many of those had the 250 six and are a good source for the pulleys, brackets and 6 cyl HEI.

[old51sedan]

Thanks for the reply with pictures. You mentioned 1976 for the HEI w, external coil, was this the first year for this? When did they quit making the 250 in trucks and X bodies? I'll be looking in the bone yard next week.

[stevenfromtexas]

i am not fond of the location of the compressor either. they do send "their" bracket for drivers side mount. i didn't want to spend the money for the passenger side one.
the second pic is kinda hard to see the bracket. you have to hold your mouth right to tension the belt for the alternator and compressor. you have to remove the thermostat housing to place their bracket in. routing of the hoses needs some thought process with the compressor on the drivers side.

[Grumpy old man]

Here's the factory A/C L6 bracket on a 250 and a 292

[Grumpy old man]

There was one factory L6 bracket on Ebay recently listed for $350.00 without the spacers he was also selling them separately for another $50.00

[Grumpy old man]

Originally Posted by old51sedan

Thanks for the reply with pictures. You mentioned 1976 for the HEI w, external coil, was this the first year for this? When did they quit making the 250 in trucks and X bodies? I'll be looking in the bone yard next week.

75-76 hei divorced coil cap

https://www.classicindustries.com/pr...ts/dr2003.html

[FL71C10]

There is a guy on ebay selling 292 AC brackets sets:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10001-AC-A-...-/321374122965

He also has one that gives you AC, PS, and alternator brackets. I did not end up getting one, and it doesn't look stick, but if it works...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10009-292-C...-/321360864871

[Rufas]

Originally Posted by stevenfromtexas

i am not fond of the location of the compressor either. they do send "their" bracket for drivers side mount. i didn't want to spend the money for the passenger side one.
the second pic is kinda hard to see the bracket. you have to hold your mouth right to tension the belt for the alternator and compressor. you have to remove the thermostat housing to place their bracket in. routing of the hoses needs some thought process with the compressor on the drivers side.

That's a nice clean engine bay!

[RichardJ]

Old grumpy, I'm not going to say that isn't the factory bracket, but if it is, you're missing 2/3s of it. There is a brace that goes down to the front corner of the block, next to the cam gear cover. There is another brace that extend back to the motor mount. Those braces would be 250 0r 292 specific.
How many bolts hold that part of the bracket to the head?
I used to have one around here somewhere. It was simply too MASSIVE and only fit tha big A6 compressor. I've seen another factory bracket that fits the R4 compressor used in the 80s, and bolted to the 4.1 Pulsair integrated head. It was MASSIVE as well.

[RichardJ]

The HEI body looks the same as the coil-in-cap, but the indexing notch for the cap is different. The wires are longer with no ground wire and a different plug than the coil-in-cap HEI. If you should find one, be sure and get coil, bracket and bolts with threaded head. The coil and even the HEI is available from the flaps, but you'll never find the hardware.

[old51sedan]

It looks like the hunt is on for a bracket. Apparently Vintage Air sells the right hand bracket if you want to pay the price. I can see why most people like the V8, everything seems to be cheaper. I'm not putting it on the drivers side, so I will continue looking. Thanks for all the help, I'll see what I come up with.

[Grumpy old man]

Originally Posted by RichardJ

Old grumpy, I'm not going to say that isn't the factory bracket, but if it is, you're missing 2/3s of it. There is a brace that goes down to the front corner of the block, next to the cam gear cover. There is another brace that extend back to the motor mount. Those braces would be 250 0r 292 specific.
How many bolts hold that part of the bracket to the head?
I used to have one around here somewhere. It was simply too MASSIVE and only fit tha big A6 compressor. I've seen another factory bracket that fits the R4 compressor used in the 80s, and bolted to the 4.1 Pulsair integrated head. It was MASSIVE as well.

No , Sorry , That's the complete bracket I pulled myself from an intact L6 engine , The stock MASSIVE A6 compressor was also in place when I pulled it . It's held in place with 4 -3/8ths bolts to the head .

Here is a thread with pictures/part #'s on them NOS sold in 2008 for $250 http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=317476

[RichardJ]

Old Air Products Bracket 40-150R $99.50
Their web page doesn't have a photo either and the drawing looks the same as vintage air.
The vintage Air kit includes the wrong bracket and the conversion kit for your control head. I wouldn't want their kit. The kit also includes the non-original vents. Original vents are purchased separately. I would pick and choose the pieces I wanted.

1st image is non-AC controller.
2nd image is controller with their resistors added.
3rd image has mods made to factory Ac controller if you choose to use it.

I would want to use one of vintage Air's controllers.

[old51sedan]

Boy, the information just keeps coming, wonderful I'm sure several people may be interested. I called Vintage Air yesterday, but were closed. The right hand bracket #15249-VCB is listed on their site as fitting the 216/235 engines. I'm not home right now so have no way to tell if the 250/292 engines have the same holes in the head to bolt to. I believe that bracket was priced at $156.00 I believe if you had the original bracket it would probably would have to altered to fit the newer/smaller compressor also. Thanks for the help.

[old51sedan]

Richard, I know it's been a while for this post. I'm now farther into this project and need some advise. Just an update, truck is painted, vintage air is all installed in the dash, 292 is ready to install, but trying to mock things up before install. I did get the pass side compressor bracket. I've had to shim compressor ahead on bracket. I have PS also. I have seen a few of these newer compressors being run with only one belt, if I could do that I could run everything else off from the other one. If not I need to figure out how to move compressor farther ahead to add a third belt. I do have a 3 grove harmonic balancer that needs to be rebuilt, but also would need a 3 grove water pump pulley, would that work off from nova or car of that period? Donn

['68OrangeSunshine]

Davis Speed Equipment makes new design aftermarket L6 A/C, P/S, Alt brackets for the 292. Not cheap, but nice looking.
www.davisspeedequipment.com/shop

[suville]

Check this http://www.ecihotrodbrakes.com/chevr...ve_system.html. Im using this set up and I like it also using remote coil HEI new from Rock Auto

[RichardJ]

>>I have seen a few of these newer compressors being run with only one belt,<<

I haven't seen a setup in a long time that ran more that one belt. I don't know what your setup looks like so I don't know how I could be of help.

Sanden advises that when using one belt only, you should use the outer groove.
Sanden compressors aren't that power hungry to need more than one belt. Only the old V-twin Mopar compressors come to mind that always used two belts.

Most accessories do well when you have around 180* of belt contact on the driven pulley. Less than that and the belt has to be too tight.

Vintage Air belt diagrams for 6-cyl are very problematic.

Diagram 2 will drive the compressor, but the water pump/fan pulley is only making about 70* contact with the belt, The pump/fan pulley will slip and scream like crazy. The Alt belt needs to go around the crank and pump/fan pulley.

Diagram 1 has two belts on the pump/fan pulley with about 70* plus 80* of contact and together they provide enough friction for the pump/fan pulley. The Alt has a double pulley, not because it needs it, but because the path of the pump belt interferes with the alt location. Cheaper and easier than adding an idler pulley to alter the path.
The crank pulley for the Alt is smaller than the crank pulley for the PS pump. This will cause the belt speeds to be different as they pass around the double Alt pulley and those belts will scream forever.

I'm not sure what question your PM is wanting me to answer, but the Vintage Air diagrams are a primer on what not to do.

[old51sedan]

I wish I could get some pictures on here, having problems with my phone loading them. Thanks for the replies, I will try to get this fixed.