Vintage Air installation in a 1968 Satellite

[Kern Dog]

I have the ECM, ballast resistor and voltage regulator to reinstall. They will hide some of the holes from view but I will have to block them off.

I could use something like these.

I did that in my own car.

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

Hmm…

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It actually isn’t that noticeable.

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You can see it if you’re looking for it.

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I’ll step away from this for the moment.

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I prefer leave as-is. Don't spray any of the lines black. Now that I see the holes, I'm fine using the block off plate. Just paint it body color with the paint I gave you. Thanks for all the photos. Looking great.

 

[Chargerjase]

That really is looking great. All the time you put into mocking things up and looking at different options has really paid off Greg. Keep up the good work.

 

[Kern Dog]

I prefer leave as-is. Don't spray any of the lines black. Now that I see the holes, I'm fine using the block off plate. Just paint it body color with the paint I gave you. Thanks for all the photos. Looking great.

So often, I need to see something in real time/in person to understand it.
The firewall plate is one of those things. With it painted, it will blend in back there. I need the temperatures to come up before I'll be able to spray it. This Thursday or Friday it is forecast to be in the 64-65 range. If I get direct sunlight, I can paint it on a table in the sun to dry faster and look right.
With the firewall plate off, I can see where it is safe to drill for mounting these:

Remind me....do you think you'd like the tops of the ECM, Ballast and voltage regulator to be straight across like this:

I could flip the Ballast resistor to have the mounting bracket on the bottom. Do you like it this way......
Or would you want the top of those three to follow the pinch weld like this?

In my Jigsaw Charger, I sort of followed the pinch weld.

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

That really is looking great. All the time you put into mocking things up and looking at different options has really paid off Greg. Keep up the good work.

and the photos and writing this up must take a long time as well. Thank-you.

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

So often, I need to see something in real time/in person to understand it.
The firewall plate is one of those things. With it painted, it will blend in back there. I need the temperatures to come up before I'll be able to spray it. This Thursday or Friday it is forecast to be in the 64-65 range. If I get direct sunlight, I can paint it on a table in the sun to dry faster and look right.
With the firewall plate off, I can see where it is safe to drill for mounting these:

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Remind me....do you think you'd like the tops of the ECM, Ballast and voltage regulator to be straight across like this:

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I could flip the Ballast resistor to have the mounting bracket on the bottom. Do you like it this way......
Or would you want the top of those three to follow the pinch weld like this?

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In my Jigsaw Charger, I sort of followed the pinch weld.

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I thought I liked the ECU mounted vertical like in your other car.
I feel like the Voltage Regulator needs to be higher up (higher than mine now, but not as high as you have yours shown above)- and have all of them all follow the pinch weld. A photo standing back farther of full engine bay would help visualize. Thanks.

 

[Kern Dog]

Just some digging around in the files and I found these.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

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Just some digging around in the files and I found these.

Geeze, pic a color already.... What is that car? Some kinda Jigsaw Puzzle....

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

Let's duplicate orientation and location like you show here. I was mistaken - it was the vertical VR. What happened to the Chrysler logo that was on yours? Peeled off from heat?

 

[Kern Dog]

Pffft...
I named the car Jigsaw because it was assembled with random parts I had collected over the years.
The only new stuff was gaskets, pistons/rings, fluids too. Oh, the radiator, water pump, thermostat and fan belts are new.
Everything else is from some other car. Used heater/defroster unit, wiper linkage, the transmission, drive shaft and headlight wiring came from my red car. The wheels are from a junkyard as are the rear brakes, the front calipers, the sway bars, even the tires. I have cabinets with electrical parts and other small tidbits. All in, I have less than $10,000 in the car including the $5000 I paid for it.

Your VR is the only one I've seen with a Pentastar sticker on it as far as I recall.

 

[Kern Dog]

On to the wiring… the part that often confuses me.
Big change for this project since I’ve been so skilled and confident so far.

Harnesses and diagrams are easily understood by many people but have often puzzled me.

I won’t say even a caveman could do this but it is simpler than expected. I tagged a few sections just to get my mind clear on it.

Red and white wires are long and are shown to run directly to the battery.

I ran mine to the starter relay and chassis ground for a cleaner route.

This blue wire is extra long too.

The compressor has a single wire coming from it that is for power. It runs through the pressure switch then to the VA harness.
In my car, I ran the compressor power wire into the factory taped harness on the intake and back to the firewall since my drier and binary pressure switch were there. This drier is behind the grille so I have to find a different way. Maybe I could run the compressor wire under the 8 hose.
The heater control valve…

… simply plugs into another connector in the harness.
….Then the harness has this relay that is stated should be accessible from the interior.

Finally, an inline circuit breaker.

I don’t see it mentioned here but it looks like the majority of the wiring stays inside and only these go through the firewall:

I can loop and stow the excess wires somewhere out of sight. I know the blue wire absolutely has to go through and all the way to the front where the drier and switch are but I’m not sure about the battery connections.

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

aren't you glad I removed that passenger seat before you picked up the car for this job?

 

[mopar jack]

Vintage Air requires the red wires to connect to the battery + and the white wires to the battery negative.
I bundled the 2 whites, the 2 reds and the blue together and made a harness covered with shrink wrap. Then I routed it through the firewall where my hood release cable passes through. I mounted the circuit breaker near the start solenoid and connected to the battery positive. The 2 whites (ground wires) landed at the chassis ground near the battery negative. The blue wire continued through the radiator yoke and connects to the binary switch.

 

[Kern Dog]

I bundled the 2 whites, the 2 reds and the blue together and made a harness covered with shrink wrap.

This is an excellent idea. I have some 3/8" black shrink wrap that will do nicely for this.

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

Vintage Air requires the red wires to connect to the battery + and the white wires to the battery negative.
I bundled the 2 whites, the 2 reds and the blue together and made a harness covered with shrink wrap. Then I routed it through the firewall where my hood release cable passes through. I mounted the circuit breaker near the start solenoid and connected to the battery positive. The 2 whites (ground wires) landed at the chassis ground near the battery negative. The blue wire continued through the radiator yoke and connects to the binary switch.

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that looks REALLY clean.
It helps that you have manual brakes with no ugly booster.
Do you have a trans cooler? Mine is on the passenger side where you have your drier. That's why I ordered my drier mounted to the condenser on the driver side, but it sure looks a lot better over there where you have it.
That's such nice paint, I think we need a full frontal angle shot of your car.

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

This is an excellent idea. I have some 3/8" black shrink wrap that will do nicely for this.

If we want to go one step further we can wrap a white/black letter label around that labeled as "A/C".

 

[Kern Dog]

I'm not familiar with such fancy things like that.

 

[mopar jack]

that looks REALLY clean.
It helps that you have manual brakes with no ugly booster.
Do you have a trans cooler? Mine is on the passenger side where you have your drier. That's why I ordered my drier mounted to the condenser on the driver side, but it sure looks a lot better over there where you have it.
That's such nice paint, I think we need a full frontal angle shot of your car.

My car has a 4 speed so no cooler. A full frontal shot as requested.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

My car has a 4 speed so no cooler. A full frontal shot as requested.

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Jack has a pair of really nice Mopars... But just one B body...

 

[Kern Dog]

Wiring is boring but here goes... First , I put some heat shrink wrap on and heated it up. I'm almost out now and need to restock.
This.....what is referred to as a circuit breaker will remain inside.

When I think of the term "circuit breaker", I think of what you see in the power panel of your house where you can reset it if/when it gets tripped.
This isn't like that. I'm guessing if it pops, you just replace it?
It will be under the dash out of site but not impossible to reach.
This left four wires to go through into the engine bay.
One 14 ga red to battery positive.
One 14 ga white for ground.
One 16 ga white for another ground.
One 16 ga blue for Binary switch on the drier.

There was a hole in the firewall originally for supporting the heater/defroster unit. I hogged it out a bit, popped in a grommet and ran the lines through.

The 4 wires were routed over the booster and then alongside the red 1/0 cable that is used for the starter.

The white ground wires were joined at a loop connector and soldered, then put in place with the other ground wires.

The blue wire from the 4 wire group is for the High/low pressure switch mounted on the drier. I ran it through to the switch which has 2 wires. The other one goes back to power the compressor clutch. More soldering and shrink wrap.

Dwayne has a battery shutoff switch. I attached the single 14 ga red wire to the side that can be "disconnected" from the battery.

Just a few small details in the engine bay then this portion of the wiring is complete.
The Greg of 2010 would have used crimp connectors and thought it was fine. Now I solder each connection that I do for strength, reliability and corrosion resistance. An old timer set me straight on that and gave me a few pointers on how to do it. I am not great at it but my stuff holds together.