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There is a vertical unit in the link. It can go either way up, might fit nicely in the boot/trunk and is more powerful than some of the horizontal ones. I'd guess it's available in the US at less than half the price.
As for AC not being necessary in the UK, I managed without it in the Mk2 'back in the day.' However, now, I use it year round. This week (beginning of winter and typically wettest part of the year) has been wet* and heat + air con serves for demisting.
*Apologies to Bill – It’s not been wet compared with what La Niņa has been throwing at you.
Last edited by Norri; 11-18-2022 at 08:05 AM.
Reason: Updated link
Peter-
If you look at that unit - it looks suspiciously like the two units I have but with a different face - except this time the face is the bottom of the unit. This further reinforces my theory that there are multiple factories churning these out and the faces are built to specification.
Peter-
If you look at that unit - it looks suspiciously like the two units I have but with a different face - except this time the face is the bottom of the unit. This further reinforces my theory that there are multiple factories churning these out and the faces are built to specification.
Yes, there seems to be a whole bunch with a lot of commonality of parts. Car Builder Solutions stock several of them. In many cases the back unit is the same and they change the front outlets. A few are a bit deeper and have a bit more power. And they swap around the internals for heat, AC, or both. My suspicion is that they all come out of the same factory in China or at least the back units do. In the UK, they cost a lot less direct from the Chinese sources that appear occasionally on ebay than from CBS. I guess you have to pay for convenience and a lot of helpful advice.
I spent a couple hours in the garage today working on the mount for the AC compressor. I was hoping to mount the AC compressor low (and away from the exhaust manifold) and put the alternator (which is smaller) on top of the compressor. That was the plan anyway.
I started out cutting the plate and compressor brackets to the correct shape.
The lower plate I made a few weeks ago was out of 1/8" steel; I recreated it in 1/4" steel.
Mocked up and tack welded.
I didn't get a picture of it in the car, but with the AC compressor mounted low, there was plenty of room for the alternator, but there was no room for the belt to go from the crankshaft pulley to the alternator pulley - the water pump is in the way.
I need to mount it the way the factory did with the alternator mounted low and the AC compressor on top. I was hoping to avoid that but there's no way around it.
Well with the compressor up high you minimums the chance of slugging the compressor after sitting overnight, i.e. liquid entering the compressor and breaking the reed valve.
The lack of covers on the interior lights really bother me. It's such an unfinished look that something had to be done.
I haven't been able to find any new and thought about designing and 3d printing some. While not an impossible task, there had to be an easier way.
This is where having multiple British cars helps out. While my MGB is a 1970, I knew the later MGB's had a map light that looked light it might be a close match. So on my last MG parts order I threw a map light for the 1977-1980 MGB in my cart.
It fit well on the mounting block and has a much better appearance than just the open light.
Mine are all busted on the inside too, but it's on the bottom of the to-do list.
I was planning on doing some sort of epoxy fix, but it would not be easy.
Only difference from standard is they have a built in switch. Well the ones I have seen. Yours have 2 visible screws. They are available without but with switch. I would not let it worry me. They look great. Even Barratts carry the 2 screw version. Just keep them switched on & let the door switches do their job. I had 9 of the darn things. Picked the best & had the metal part re-chromed.
Last edited by Glyn M Ruck; 11-20-2022 at 02:37 PM.
I'm not sure why you posted Robertson or Philips, when slotted looks more proper.
Even better in stainless, they're easily polished.
This sort of thing, usually boating suppliers have them in wood and machine screws.
I never liked the look of Philips head on old cars, even if they did exist at the time, and certainly not Robertson.
To each his own.
Interesting thread; touches off on plenty of great of great topics!
I understand the desire to retrofit AC; I'm in a city where every summer it usually hits the 107+ (42 Celsius) mark.
Some of the retrofit units to achieve this are amazingly compact but ridiculously priced. They do certainly feature a heater as well but that adds a further layer of integration complexity: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/202223199365
My Triumph Stag was conceived with the Americans in mind thus had a (very well designed) integrated AC from the start. The Stag was probably the first model the Triumph engineers had worked on offering AC as an option and it does appear that most of the technology was borrowed from the recently released XJ6.
Living in Australia at the time of the Stags release year in 1970 was not like living in California. It was a different universe; few Australians were used to or were willing to pay for AC. British Leyland Australia therefore decided to not officially import any Stags with the factory integrated AC. Seems like a surprising move considering your reasonably well-heeled Triumph Stag buyer was parting with Range Rover, BMW 520i money and likely able to pay the extra but BLA probably didn’t like the thought of having lots of potentially unwanted AC cars sitting around..
This left the poor Australian Triumph dealers having to cater for demand and they in turn reached out to the local AC specialists to come up with an effective integrated AC solution.
The specialists came up with several attempts. The most successful being when one of the locals realised that you could just 'chop off' the top of the Smiths heater unit and bolt on a Japanese fan behind what appears to be and encased in galvanised sheet metal Jaguar evaporator. The top part of the Smiths heater removed included of course ditching the low velocity and unsuitable for AC heater blower fan but the heater core remained in the below part of the Smiths assembly.
Not sure if you could try this on a S Type/420 but all’s that’s really required in the cabin's is an encased evaporator and an AC blower fan. I've attached a photo of one such very early Australian integrated attempt. Fitted under the Stag’s glove box after the parcel tray was trimmed to size. It had a USA made fan behind a horizontally mounted evaporator encased in galvanised sheet metal, held and made air tight with rivets, solder and TX valve mastic. Easy enough to fabricate a less crude example these days with freely available sheet aluminium and a myriad of AC fans and evaporators available from the AC parts suppliers.
I removed this off my car after I managed to find one of the later Smiths hybrid boxes designs mentioned above.
Top view. Unit was mounted sideways under glovebox and in between parcel tray in passenger footwell of RHD vehicle. Outlets facing transmission tunnel. Bottom view. Black felt visible in photo placed on the casing to make it look less obvious. Front view, which faced the transmission tunnel. Side view which faced the cars firewall.
Photos below show the later period style compressor bracket modification fabricated to take a Sanden style compressor, rather than the factory supplied York style. May provide ideas for the 4.2 engine? Top view. Pulley side bolted to front of engine. Small bolt hole bracket visible in top middle of photo is where one of the Triumph V8's head bolts goes through, used to secure the back of the bracket. Bottom view.
I'm not sure why you posted Robertson or Philips, when slotted looks more proper.
Even better in stainless, they're easily polished.
This sort of thing, usually boating suppliers have them in wood and machine screws.
I never liked the look of Philips head on old cars, even if they did exist at the time, and certainly not Robertson.
To each his own.
Some of the nice heads are only available on machine screws.
11-18-2022, 07:42 AM
