Air Con: How do I refit the Aircon Compressor, S80/V70

[Orca2]

I agree Chesh. Easiest last pulley is tensioner pas pump looks easy cos its up in the air and easy to get to but is a beehatch to get belt over . It just slips over the tensioner.

[Bernard46]

As Orca said the real problem is your knuckles or rather the total lack of space to get your hands in and do any manoeuvring at all. I guess I'm not a small guy but there is only about an inch or so between the wheels and the metal wheel arch - add in the power steering pipes, the sharp edges on the box containing all the electronics and the relative darkness once you start doing anything it's a total nightmare. There is no room to move your hands at all.

The power steering wheel is certainly the obvious one to go for in terms of it being up there on top of everything and with plenty of room around it, but as you say it is a groved pulley and getting the belt over it is not easy unless you can get the tensioner pulley back to its minimum position - this was where my rather unorthodox spanner/crowbar combination came in. I had massive leverage with the crowbar and it just about gave me enough room to slip the belt over the groved power steering pulley once the tensioner pulley was pushed back - I don't think there was any way I could have manoeuvred the belt over the tensioner pulley whilst holding that pulley back at minimum tension - there just wasn't enough room to do it.

I'm heartily relieved to have got everything back in place but somewhat fed up that I couldn't get the air con clutch plate off - assuming I try again I'll need to make a much stronger plate for my puller and I'll need to make sure I have nuts rather than Allan key heads on my M6 bolts - that clutch plate was very firmly held on the splines. Once again thanks for the discussion everyone - you all helped a lot.
Bernard

[Orca2]

I replaced the ac compressor with a scrappy one on mine clutch was incinerated,cos it failed at very high speed on the motorway, they only cost about 20 quid from scrappys who struggle to sell them.
The whole clutch shimming thing looks like a faff and you have to remove and reinstall the compressor either way.

[Bernard46]

Using a scrap one sounds like an interesting idea, but I didn't really consider it because of having to disconnect the aircon pipes and then a) the environmental damage of letting the fluid out into the air, and b) any problems in getting it re gassed having had all the fluid out and got air into the system. How did you address point b) above? I'm interested in the possibility of doing this, but not sure it's legal?

[nickbw898]

You can make a significant increase in the available space by removing the radiator shroud and fan. This is a two 10mm bolt and two electrical cable clips job; 5 minutes at most. I do it when I do a full service to the PCV system.

[Bernard46]

Ok, thanks - I'll go and take a look at that suggestion.

[Orca2]

Originally Posted by Bernard46

Using a scrap one sounds like an interesting idea, but I didn't really consider it because of having to disconnect the aircon pipes and then a) the environmental damage of letting the fluid out into the air, and b) any problems in getting it re gassed having had all the fluid out and got air into the system. How did you address point b) above? I'm interested in the possibility of doing this, but not sure it's legal?

Its not legal , there was next to nothing left in mine , you get it regassed just the same way as if it had popped a hose, they vaccuum it out before filling it , get them to check the compressor oil too.
The scrappys just cut the hoses and let the system depressurise , they are going to crush it anyway and dont vacuum the gas out, at least not in Glasgow they don't.