65 Wildcat Factory Air Issues

F-MM

Member
Ok, this 65 Wildcat Convertible of mine has factory AC, everything kicks in as it should, suction pipe gets cold, even frosty, high side port is right on pipe close to compresser, gauges both stay close to the same pressure all the time. Normally that would be an expansion valve problem but this setup is different, uses a suction throttling valve ahead of the expansion valve and I don't believe it is available anymore. Does anyone have any experience with this? It seems all the baffles are working fine, move the lever to heat and it changes immediately and back again.
 
I don't have enough experience, but I will reminisce a story, I had a problem where I called in some help. It was on a '67 which has a POA valve. My friend identified the problem as in the POA valve and we took it apart, cleaned it up and it was fine. I don't remember the disassembly, but it was interesting and I wouldn't be afraid to try it again. So there is a good chance you can take your suction throttling valve apart and restore it.

See classicbuicks.com has a kit: https://classicbuicks.com/shop/heat...tioning-parts/e-suction-throttling-valve-kit/
 
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I don't have enough experience, but I will reminisce a story, I had a problem where I called in some help. It was on a '67 which has a POA valve. My friend identified the problem as in the POA valve and we took it apart, cleaned it up and it was fine. I don't remember the disassembly, but it was interesting and I wouldn't be afraid to try it again. So there is a good chance you can take your suction throttling valve apart and restore it.

See classicbuicks.com has a kit: https://classicbuicks.com/shop/heat...tioning-parts/e-suction-throttling-valve-kit/
I see, well the car came with a bunch of manuals and going through the pictures it does show an exploded view of what they call "early design suction throttling valve." and go on to talk about the models 62-65 with removable internal piston and a piston & diaphragm repair kit. This is all in a book printed in the early 90s. The picture looks just like what I have on mine.
 
If you look up on this thread, you will see a link to an article I have just added regarding the suction throttle valve. You can also find the link in the REFERENCE section under GENERAL.
 
I'm replying to my own posts from last year about the AC on my 65 Wildcat Convertible. Attached is a picture from under the dash with glove box removed. As you may be able to see, i have 4 loose vacuum hoses, picture only shows 3 but there is 4 and 3 have screws screwed to plug them on the cabin side. Coming through the firewall i see 3 hoses and a forth hole i think. I also see there is a small one laying on top the engine plugged but all the hoses going to distributor and carburetor, etc seem attached and it runs great. As i was saying last fall, the AC seems to be operating normal under the hood, kicks in and hose gets ice cold and other one seems warm. I was suspecting that throttling valve but i don't want to tear into that knowing that all these vacuum hoses are not able to function that way. Can anyone give me some ideas of how to hook these back up and find out why they were unhooked in the first place. The heater works fine and the manual controls direct the heat where needed so I don't thing they have anything to do with that, but they surely must control the workings of the AC.
 

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Thanks for that info, i printed off about 25 pages and hopefully that will show me where the hoses should attack providing the 65 uses the same components in the same order as the 66. They seem to be talking about climate control in the manual and i'm not sure if there is a difference, I know we have an non restored 69 Electra coupe that has the thermostat wheel you set for temperature control, this 65 doesn't have that but maybe I can figure it out anyway.
 
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