My fellow C3 owners

I bought a 76, actually I traded my 79 for the 76 the 79 was set up for the 1/4 mile only. I needed a street car.  The 76 was my dream......... until I had a chance to look close.

It only had 37K miles on it. I had documentation on it up to 93. Than it sat in a garage in Arizona. The car is matching numbers, and showroom condition in and out The old owner put tires on it  washed it STARTED it and ran it for 3 or 4 weeks. Never changing the old oil. 

The inside of the engine looked like it was built in a sand storm.  Someone had had the engine out and started a good rebuild. Body mounts full front suspension new exhaust. Some one really paid attention to everything but the engine. I pulled the engine with the help of allot of friends. Had it punched .30 over and purchased a balanced complete parts kit from Jegs. It really came with everything, but the cam. I purchased a new cam and lifters. I found a set of heads on eBay with 194 valves and Z28 springs. after I had the new heads checked (they were like new) we rebuilt the engine. Made sure everything was balanced, even used a large harmonic balancer. It took a week and a case of beer to put it back together.  (i didn’t mention  I'm handicapped and I am very limited as to what I can do. I have RA and had 3 back surgeries that didn’t work.)  Any way..... We got it running. it runs better than any other Vette I have ever owned. Very smooth and powerful.

Here is the problem. Who ever put the car together years ago never reinstalled the A/C system. They were very careful to cap every open tube and line throughout the system, to make sure no contaminates got into the system.

I have everything under the dash and on the firewall. All that is in place.

I have the condenser; I put back in when I had the engine out. On the floor I have two solid lines about 2 - 3' long one small one a little bigger. The Compressor, the mounting parts for the compressor w/bolts.  And the receiver dryer. I don’t know where they go on the car. I can probably figure out where the compressor goes. It needs to line up with one of the pulleys in the front.

Can someone let me know where the 2 lines go and the dryer? Am I missing the expansion valve? HELP. I can’t find or figure what I am missing and where it all goes.  Draw me a map or something. It’s 110 degrease outside and 140 in the car.

Don hang in there I'm sure they have pictures and tons of help. Do you own an instalation manual?

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LIFETIME MEMBER 151

Yeah, Don, you really should get the assembly manual for a guide, but there is some quite talented people on here that can help you (I'm just not one of them   ). Good luck with the project and keep us posted on your progress!

|UPDATED|9/9/2011 12:50:04 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|


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"Down on the Boardwalk...

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Barry

Don, a bunch of us are going to Ocean, City, Maryland, for a Corvette weekend. They have a thing where upwards of 700 Vettes all cruise from one end of the boardwalk to the other! People line the boardwalk and come out on the hotel balconies to look and take pictures! Of course all years of Vettes are represented. They have a dinner and dance on Friday night, an awards dinner on Saturday night. They also have a car show and poker rallyes on Saturday before the cruise. It's a GREAT time! It seems like there's a LOT of people out there from the east! Hope you get your project together! It sounds like a cool Vette!

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"Down on the Boardwalk...

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The dryer (with sight glass) is just to the right of the condenser on my '72.  I don't see any long metal tubes on mine.  My lines are mostly rubber with metal ends where they attach to the compressor, evaporator, and the lines that come from the condenser and dryer/receiver.  Go to Corvette Central and look at their diagrams for your year A/C parts.

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