A couple of questions for the A/C Gurus

[Ray70Chrg]

Brief history, This is about a 1970 charger I have for 5 1/2 years. It came with factory a/c and has all the pieces. Over the last 1 1/2 years I completely rebuilt the heater/ac box using the great write-up that was available on this site. I have the whole unit installed, however, I don't have the replacement parts yet that go into engine compartment so only the blower and heater are hooked up. My 1st question concerns the vacuum connection to the intake manifold. The vacuum tank came with the car but was not hooked up. One of the 2 vac hoses that comes into the engine compartment thru the rubber grommet went to the intake mani.fitting for the brake booster. The other to the water valve. In looking at the service manual, 1st photo, it shows a "bleed wire" that's tee'd into the hose from the vac.can. Is this a wire or a hose and does it just hang in space? Now the hose that went to the manifold fitting looks like it could be that hose, 2nd photo. All the vac hoses are black so I guess they have been replaced. If it just hangs in space doesn't that diminish the vacuum. I plan on hooking up the vac can again to aid the vacuum. Thanks for your responses.

 

[Demonic]

The original hoses had colored stripes that matched the diagram in the FSM. I'd start at port 6 on the control switch, the first thing you trace back to would be a tee. Not that same as the manifold fitting I believe, but 70 is different from 69.

 

[Ray70Chrg]

Thanks for replying, that is the hose that goes directly to port 6. It had another sleeve over the plastic connector you see in the picture and was connected to nipple on the intake manifold. My main question is what is that " bleed wire " in the fsm and what is it's function.

 

[Demonic]

If the water valve is vac on one side and spring return on the other, it needs a vent - the bleed - to change position. True for any other actuators on the circuit that are spring return. I suspect in the text of the 70 FSM there's a paragraph describing it. So your description vs the diagram, there's stuff missing. Manifold to vac reservoir, then from the reservoir there's the tee, then port 6.

 

[Ray70Chrg]

Thanks again Demonic. Your explanation makes sense. This car sat in a garage for 15 years before I bought it and have no idea when the a/c last worked properly. The a/c charge was "0" when I first started to take everything apart. I have searched thru the text of the fsm several times and can find nothing about the " Bleed Wire ". The only reference is the drawing in photo #1. In the fsm it is shown 4 times, exactly the same way, only with different positions of the vacuum control switch. I have found that using the FSM has been confusing at times, probably because I am a DIY type of guy and not a trained mechanic. The FSM was written for trained mechanics and probably know, at a glance, what a Bleed Wire is and what it does. Well it's always nice to learn something new.