DIY AE86 16V 4AGE A/C MOD FOR MANUAL RACK SETUP

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negrizio
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DIY AE86 16V 4AGE A/C MOD FOR MANUAL RACK SETUP

Postby negrizio » Thu Jul 04, 2013 3:21 pm

Hello guys,
Before the previous site crash, I learned many things and tricks by reading all the interesting DYI threads. Now is my turn to give in return something you may be interested in.

Not too long ago (June 2012) I decided to go the manual rack way for my AE86 GTS. I bought all items you all know (aw11 manual rack, t3 bushing, mk3 supra shaft, ujoint etc.). Once the mod was made I was happy since it was a good idea to get extra steering response and angle in exchange for a little extra muscle. I added a cone K&N filter with an elbow reducer for the intake at the same time to replace the old OEM standard.

But the main reason I did this was because I had bad PS pump; it leaked like hell and I was wasting about a ¼ of PS fluid a week. I did change it twice in 2-3 year period; but I didn’t want to do it again.

Then for a month or so, I realized that my next step will be fixing the A/C system which was useless by the recent mod. Where I live summer temps can get to 110F easily and in winter 77 to 86(not to talk about humidity). I was seeing myself in a sauna in short term…

I was broke but I really needed to fix the A/C perfectly functional and by very economical means. No fancy, expensive or hard to find parts… just wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

So I encountered the following issues:
a) How can I get tension on a shorter belt to make the compressor work?
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b) What to do with the idle-up system(vsv valves & piping) without removing my actual short ram intake? The A/C system works with valves that open to get the extra air from the OEM intake to rise RPM and compensate the engine effort.
c) Use the minimum parts as possible with a $50 budget…

With all the above concerns in mind, an idea emerged… what if I reuse the actual belt tensioner and flip the bolt to the top of the bracket????? I though, with a little mod to the bracket itself and a junked pulley I could solve this issue ASAP.

So my search for a pulley started, I went to ALL junks yards and spend many hours a week looking for a pulley with the right fit (A pulley with a cavity the same as the oem ball bearing diameter and the exact spacing for its functional rotation)…. The result … useless… a total waste of time….

So I went for Plan B, design and make my own pulley… It was tricky at the beginning but at the end it was worth the effort. So here it goes… if you go this way you will need:

1) OEM PS complete braket with its tensioner pulley. Most of you already have this.
2) A 3.5”X 4” T6061 aluminum round bar stock. Cost about $25 in ebay with free shipping….
3) A friend with a lathe and KNOWLEDGE…
4) A smaller belt, 355K-5 belt as mine… $7 at NAPA.
5) 1 cast iron welding rod, $2 each. VERY IMPORTANT
6) 1”x1”x1/4” scrap iron piece. Just jank a piece from somewhere.
7) A spray can… in case you get picky, $6 at NAPA.
8) PFI bearing for $8. (PFI P# 6908-2RS C3)… only if you need to replace it.
9) 8mm drill bit… am pretty sure you already own a set of drill bits
10) 1/8 NPT tap… these are very common, $2 - $5 each
11) 1/8 NPT brass fitting… with male 1/8 npt thread in one end and hose coupler in the other(for a ¼ vacuum hose of course)… $2 each


Disassembly
You’ll need to remove the oem plane pulley to get a blue print for your new design. I’ll give measures further in this thread, so don’t worry. Remove the front nut that locks the metal bushing. A reversible bench jaw will do the trick … or a hydraulic press.
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Get the pulley out and flip it to rear side. With some pliers remove the bearing retainer.
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Using a reversible bench jaw and 3 sockets, remove inner locking bushing. When doing this, make sure the rear side of the bushing isn’t in contact with the sockets… note that the dust cover is missing here... I lost it, but am sure you can get it out with a hydraulic press without damaging it. NEVER TRY TO HIT IT WITH A HAMMER!!!!
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Once the bushing is out reuse it with 2 sockets to remove the bearing.
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With the bearing out, it will be a good idea to check it. Most of them have been there for more than 25 years. So I change mine… If you want quality bearings use KOYO (PN is 6908RU) cost about $ 35 plus shipping… That’s too much for a bearing considering my low budjet mod, so I used a PFI equivalent USA made bearing for $8. (PFI P# 6908-2RS C3)
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Design / Blue Prints / Machining etc
I know many of you have some experience using Solidworks to make blue prints. I did too, but I was lazy to use it. Sorry for this, I used old school drawing ….
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All measures are in inches and made with very accurate mitutoyo calipers and micrometers. I checked them several times before making this thread. So be sure these are good approximations to follow. Be aware that measures may vary depending on the accuracy of the tools you use. So get the best you can afford for this DIY.

I bought a 3.5”X6” aluminum round bar stock for 2 reasons. One, in case something went wrong I could give it a second try. You must consider this issue if you own a manual lathe. Those who have a CNC lathe may forget about this issue.
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Here you see an idea of the cavity to be removed…
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Fab attempt
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The reason # 2, I could use the rest of the bar stock to make a manual rack bushing…. Again for free!!!!

The final product
After an hour of fab or so, the pulley is finished.
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A very small amount of material is removed from the outside of the stock bar to leave the pulley as strong as possible. This is a drawback of my design and I’ll explain it at the end.
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I tested the belt and had a perfect fit. You can see that a small amount of it is in the outside as a result of purchasing a small diameter bar stock. This is nothing to worry about since the tension and inner groves leave the belt in place.
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I pushed the new bearing in with the same method and a piece of wood…. no issues at all. It had a reasonable tight assembly, no looseness at all.
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Bracket Mod
You all know this item is made of cast iron, which in some cases people tend to forget that not all welding rods work when soldering. If you use a normal rod (E6011 type for example) it will react with the metal leaving small pores; you must purchase a special made rod for cast iron. With this in consideration, proceed to cut a scrap iron piece and drill a hole to it for the bolt tensioner.
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Taking some slight measures you can line up the iron piece to the bracket, so that the bolt can travel straight and freely. You need to take reference from the orifice at the bottom.
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Solder the piece to the bracket.
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Remember to be sure both holes are line up to each other. Otherwise you’ll have a rough time adjusting the bolt, or worse breaking it.
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Let it cool by itself and remove the extra material; then assemble.
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If you are a little picky, is time to use the spray can.
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Now to the 4AGE assembly
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See the there is about a little more than ¼ inch between the bracket mod and the sprocket cover, and it does not hit the plastic.
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Put the belt on and adjust the bolt to the desirable tension. Then adjust the front nut.
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To this point all mechanical mod is done in a 90%. The rest is piece of cake!!!!
It’s important you make sure the new pulley lines up with the crank pulley. Any defect even by 1mm can cause belt and bearing premature wearness.

Now that issue #1 is solved, is time to get both solenoid valves (electric idle up vsv and a/c vsv) and the piping fixed. This is very easy to do.

If you take a close look to the OEM intake hose, you’ll note a piece of metal tube that’s inserted at the middle. Am talking about the rubber pipe that’s between AFM sensor and the TVIS intake manifold. One side of this metal pipe is connected to the VSV valve located front RH strut tower, the other side to the Electric Idle VSV attached to the AFM sensor… You just have to reconnect pipes + both VSV plug wiring again and you´re done.

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In my case, I removed the OEM intake and put a short ram intake setup … nothing fancy; just a silicon elbow reducer and a k&n filter. This was done along with the manual rack conversion long ago… and I didn’t want to go back to the old OEM intake setup to get the system work properly. Plus, making a hole in the elbow reducer will leave the pipe subject to leaks due to vibration; So, Instead I drilled a 8mm hole straight through the AFM sensor casting and reused this 3 way small pipe of the previous pic with an NPT fitting…

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Then I made threads to the AFM casting with a 1/8 NPT tap. Somehow I manage to find a small fitting with the same thread; so I screw it in the casting along with the OEM 3 end pipe + a 3” janked vacuum hose.

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Reconnect the pipes to the new scheme and it’s finally done…. Issue #2 solved!!!!

By the way, this mod has been working ok for 8 months with no problems at all…

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Pros:
a) You´ll never have to throw yourself to the ground and remove the splash guard to tight your belt again.
b) This is a completely reversible mod; if you want to go back to the P/S again just put the old stuff back in (p/s rack +piping+pump+pulley+belt and flip tensioner bolt)…. and ready to go…
c) It’s a very economical and simple mod…. Under $60 budget.
d) You end up reusing most OEM parts.
Cons:
a) If I did this again I prefer to make a stronger pulley by making it at least a 4” diameter one (in other words the same diameter as the OEM)… of course you’ll need at least a 4”x4 bar stock. So make your own adjustments to the blue print above. Thus, most of the measures will remain the same.
b) If you have carbs (dellorto, weber, mikuni etc…) you won’t be able to do this, unless you have a analog a/c system setup… but who will need a/c with a performance carb setup????
c) Recharge refrigerant+lube to the a/c system again… Just if you have it removed in the manual rack conversion. This was my stupid mistake… and I think most of you did it too… or worse maybe sold parts… this will cost you a bit depending on the shop you visit.

Here is the vid if you want to see it working:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdhmEIcjeQE

That’s all folks… hope you liked it… suggestions/comments are welcome…

joel23
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Re: DIY AE86 16V 4AGE A/C MOD FOR MANUAL RACK SETUP

Postby joel23 » Fri Jul 05, 2013 10:02 pm

nice write up..... :mrgreen:

ae86xy
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Re: DIY AE86 16V 4AGE A/C MOD FOR MANUAL RACK SETUP

Postby ae86xy » Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:04 pm

You should start producing them pulleys

CH121SW20
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Re: DIY AE86 16V 4AGE A/C MOD FOR MANUAL RACK SETUP

Postby CH121SW20 » Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:29 am

Wow dude. That is devotion. Nice job.

AE 92 Suspension For Sale. http://club4ag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=16049
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AA01
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Re: DIY AE86 16V 4AGE A/C MOD FOR MANUAL RACK SETUP

Postby AA01 » Mon Mar 03, 2014 5:56 am

Everyone here is going to hate me, for replying so late on this topic, but.... If you use the AW11 A/C idler it will bolt onto the tensioner. The only oddity with this is you have to run the AW11 belt which is one rib thinner than the stock AE86 belt. This is not a problem as it is wrapped far enough around the compressor's pulley to prevent it from slipping. The adjuster bolt I decided i didn't want to modify the bracket, so i simply threaded the bolt trough the tensioner, then doubled nutted the end. I did this with a little nub of the bolt extending past the double nuts so the could ride in the hole on the bottom (where the tensioner bolt used to go through). This put the adjuster nut on the top, putting pressure against the bottom. Just as easy to adjust, all off the shelf parts.

I really like mod on the AFM! Mine I had to install the OE fitting with a rubber grommet, as I am using a JDM MAP setup with a hard piped intake.

shagymc
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Re: DIY AE86 16V 4AGE A/C MOD FOR MANUAL RACK SETUP

Postby shagymc » Mon Mar 10, 2014 9:24 pm

Well beyond my skill level but props for what looks like a stellar job!

Cpaschal
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Re: DIY AE86 16V 4AGE A/C MOD FOR MANUAL RACK SETUP

Postby Cpaschal » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:22 pm

with some adjustment you can get a belt the same size as the aw11 with the extra rib. you have to be willing to look up the belt size in a paper catalog at your local auto parts store. not hard just takes a few minutes. I really like this setup though, wish I had a lathe of my own to make a pulley.