Classic Auto Air in 67 Barracuda Factory Non AC

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jmwuva05 said:
Still out of town but I bought the classic auto air universal slimline controller which is a nice billet piece with lighting. I carefully scribed out with a dremmel the opening in the plastic surround about an 1/8th of an Inch and it fits in really nice. Here is the link
Universal Slim Line AC Controller | Classic Auto Air - Air Conditioning & Heating for 70’s & Older Cars & Trucks.
I did get a 1973 heater radio bezel with the large opening as my original 72 one was in bad shape. I bought the leather look overlays from Detroit muscle instead of the wood grain and they are really nice too. I will post some pics when I get home been away on business for 2 weeks straight
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I don't think that will work with the perfect fit kit. I saw that on their site and emailed them. They said it only worked with the universal kit. So I'm curious how this turns out.

Mine is operated by the factory blower switch (which would be easy to rewire) but the temp control and mode is cable operated. As well as the water valve.
 
jmwuva05 said:
Still out of town but I bought the classic auto air universal slimline controller which is a nice billet piece with lighting. I carefully scribed out with a dremmel the opening in the plastic surround about an 1/8th of an Inch and it fits in really nice. Here is the link
Universal Slim Line AC Controller | Classic Auto Air - Air Conditioning & Heating for 70’s & Older Cars & Trucks.
I did get a 1973 heater radio bezel with the large opening as my original 72 one was in bad shape. I bought the leather look overlays from Detroit muscle instead of the wood grain and they are really nice too. I will post some pics when I get home been away on business for 2 weeks straight
Click to expand...

Does your heater box have cables? Or are they electronically actuated?
 
68 A said:
Does your heater box have cables? Or are they electronically actuated?
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So one cable moves the water valve in the engine bay (temp control) And the other operates a little bar that is connected to the box, that I believe moves the doors that direct the airflow (face, feet,def,etc)
 
plumkrazee70 said:
So one cable moves the water valve in the engine bay (temp control) And the other operates a little bar that is connected to the box, that I believe moves the doors that direct the airflow (face, feet,def,etc)
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Right, I haven't gotten those installed yet. Those slim line controls must have electronic actuators in the heater box.
 
68 A said:
Does your heater box have cables? Or are they electronically actuated?
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They are electronically activated. I bought this from them around October so they may have upgraded the system. Mine does have the wifi stuff. The man who set me up with the kit at classic auto air really knew his stuff and was very helpful. My car had been a racer so the previous owner had removed all of the heater stuff so i didn't have factory stuff anyhow and we figured it would be cheaper to get the new controller than tracking down factory slide type controls and refurbishing them. The way I understand it the alteration of the factory control involves a set of micro switches which then plug into the unit and tell it which doors to open etc
 
jmwuva05 said:
They are electronically activated. I bought this from them around October so they may have upgraded the system. Mine does have the wifi stuff. The man who set me up with the kit at classic auto air really knew his stuff and was very helpful. My car had been a racer so the previous owner had removed all of the heater stuff so i didn't have factory stuff anyhow and we figured it would be cheaper to get the new controller than tracking down factory slide type controls and refurbishing them. The way I understand it the alteration of the factory control involves a set of micro switches which then plug into the unit and tell it which doors to open etc
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Yes, so is the box you got a perfect fit kit or a universal? I guess the question that needs answered is are the boxes the same, but the controls different?

I wanted to update my controls, but I believe I was told I couldn't because of the box I got.
 
plumkrazee70 said:
How does the new controller control it all? Does it still have a water valve in the line?
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The water controll valve is electric as well it has a pigtail that runs from the control module through the firewall to the valve.
 
Ok, so I just called them.

So the new system uses the same factory sliders, but have integrated potentiometers that connect to a electric water valve and servo on the box.

He confirmed you CANNOT retro fit an existing perfect fit system with this new setup. They will not sell the parts individually. I asked what if something fails, he said they would sell the parts, but I think what he was getting at was he wouldn't be able to support it or have instructions for a retro fit.

Also, the Bluetooth is only for diag. It doesn't control the system via Bluetooth.
 
Ok I finally got some pictures. Yes the instructions in the kit confirm that the newer unit won't work with the older style controls. Yes I had to pay extra for that controller but it was like half of the retail price where I was buying a whole kit

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jmwuva05 said:
Ok I finally got some pictures. Yes the instructions in the kit confirm that the newer unit won't work with the older style controls. Yes I had to pay extra for that controller but it was like half of the retail price where I was buying a whole kit

View attachment 1715859805

View attachment 1715859806
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Sorry, I'm getting confused.

You have the slim controls as pictured. What box do you have? (Part#?)

If you have the old box, how did you make it work?
 
It's not in yet and it. I still haven't got the engine bay painted yet thanks to the cold weather. We fit the box up to the Cowel and firewall before we primed the engine bay. Also I have the dash out so it made it easy to get everything lined up then we test fit for clearance then I started redoing the dash.
 
This is the part number listed for the new unit. The plugs from the controller plug into the equipment which then plugs into the evaporater unit, water valve, etc. The only thing that wasn't in a pre-made harness were the leads for the lighting on the slimline controllers but I am going to tie those into the harness for the speedhut gauges lights

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I will add a picture of the ecu unit next time I make it to my workshop
 
scatpackbee said:
Just a tip. Instead of using sheet metal screws to secure the plastic plate covering the heater motor hole where the A/C pipes will now come out, I used threaded rivnuts in the motor firewall holes then used fender type bolts to secure that plate to the firewall.

It looks very factory and there are no additional holes in the firewall.

Also keep in mind that you will not get full travel on the temperature slider on the factory panel with the new A/C, just about 1/2 to 3/4 travel.
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I'm beginning the installation in my 70 non-factory air Dart. I bought the perfect fit with the blue tooth diagnostics. It came with Installation Manual 1967-72 Chrysler "A" Bodies, Document #1-3062 Copyright 2021 ClassicAutoAir / 07.21

The booklet looks to have been designed by somebody in high school. It's not totally awful but it's also not great. One example is an illustration on page 23. It shows the installation of the heater box from the engine bay view. It's showing you to use two supplied bolts to bolt the box to the firewall. The problem is that it looks like you will have to drill two new holes with no instruction on where. After careful examination of the heater box and the firewall, you realize that you are to use two of the existing holes from the old fan motor.
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Another lack of explanation is Bench Calibrating the system before installing it in the vehicle. Pages 9-10 are titled "Operation" and show all the positions of the controls and what should be happening with the unit. Then you get to the middle right of page 10 and it reads "Your controls are now fully calibrated to your unit...." Wait, what? We were calibrating? How? And on one of the bags in the box it says you must follow the steps in the BENCH CALIBRATION packet before installation. There is no packet for that. I was poking around their website and under "Support" I found a video on how to bench calibrate. The installation manual looks like it was not written by a technical copy writer and more like something that was deemed to be too long so they edited it down and then never went back to proofread it to see if it made sense.
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I also found that my temperature slider only has half the range of travel. I looked at the supplied Temp Control Integrator, which is a sliding potentiometer, and it only has half of its range of travel as well but the opposite direction. If I shorten the wire 3/4" and make a new loop, both the temp control slider and the Integrator will have full travel.
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I'd be interested in hearing any other experiences on installation of the newer system. I expect to have to do a few modifications but leaving out important information is not so good. I mean how difficult to print, "IT IS MANDITORY THAT YOU CALIBRATE YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE INSTALLING IT IN YOUR VEHCILE. VISIT THE SUPPORT PAGE ON OUR WEBSITE TO VIEW A SIMPLE HOW-TO VIDEO"

And the bolts through the firewall, it would just take a few dashed lines directing the bolts through the two holes on the drawing to illustrate that. Simple.

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This is exactly why I'm interested in the fully aftermarket controls. Adapting "universal stuff" to the OE controls is just asking to have to do something custom. The controls don't end up making sense with the adaption anyway. When OFF is AC, Heat is Defrost, and Defrost is heat...
 
goldduster318 said:
This is exactly why I'm interested in the fully aftermarket controls. Adapting "universal stuff" to the OE controls is just asking to have to do something custom. The controls don't end up making sense with the adaption anyway. When OFF is AC, Heat is Defrost, and Defrost is heat...
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Yes the universal control is plug and go from what the salesman told me another reason I wanted to use it. As for the bolts I had to drill my own. Wasn't too hard we held the box against the firewall and reached through the heater hole with a sharp 90 hook tool and scratched the metal then drilled the holes.
 
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