A/C question

[boostmaster]

I have searhed several times but cannot seem to come up with a difinitive answer to my query. Will A/C stuff from an Aspire work on my 88lx Festy?

I am also under the impression that A/C stuff from a FI car will not work on a Carb'd car. Is this correct?

My car is carb'd and I was condiering an A/C conversion form a 97 Aspire which I assume is FI...

Am I mistaken on all counts? Please advise...

[freshtiva]

For one thing I think the aspire uses a different type of belt than the festiva so the pulley on the aspire compressor probably wont work with the festiva belt.

[boostmaster]

good to know. Anyone else have info on this?

[rbrown]

What parts are you actually looking into. Everything?

[MONSOON]

Im pulling up completely different part numbers for Aspires and Festivas at RockAuto. But what I wonder is if its because of the different pulley? Probably. If so I wonder if they(the pulley) could be swapped.
The compressor is the same for an 88 Festiva as a 93. Im not going through everything, but what I did go through showed the same part numbers.

[freshtiva]

The idle on my cars increases when the A/C is on to account for the additional load on the engine plus the cooling fan runs when the A/C in on. Youd probably want to wire your 88 to do the same somehow.

[gottafesty]

As far as Aspire to Festiva A/C goes, I was going to do this once but changed my mind after trying to make it work. Here are the issues I ran into. The evaporator box is different and if I remember won't fit behind the glovebox. The condensor is very much larger but could possibly be made to work by changing the brackets. The lines/hoses route a different way and care must be taken not to kink them. The electrical is quite a bit different. The compressor bolts up. The idler pulley/bracket bolts up. Since the hose/line fittings are different between Aspire and Festiva, you can't really mix and match. And there's the pulley issue that was mentioned earlier.

As far as differences between Carbed and FI they are less drastic. I think the main difference is the electrical. The components (relays, switches, etc.) are all pretty much the same just at different points in the system.

If I forgot something let me know but I believe that covers it.

[boostmaster]

Great. This is waht I wanted. At this point I can then scrap the Aspire idea as I'm trying to keep this project cheap and simple. So if I were to buy a setup from a FI car for my carbed car do I need some special adapter or just to change or add some wiring? Please forgive all of these questions but I've never worked on a festy much less the A/C so I'm working blind... I did purchase the factory service manual and have benn using the search feature to read what I can. Just haven't found the right A/C info...

Thanks for all the input thus far.

[gottafesty]

In the back of the Haynes manual are the wiring diagrams for 88-89 and 90-93 a/c systems. I might even have a wiring harness for 88-89 festiva. I'll get back to you on that. As far as the other parts go, I believe they are the same but someone else ere might know differently.

[boostmaster]

Sounds good thanks. Any ideas where I can get all of these parts besides parts cars? I was not sure if any of these parts can be had in newer condition.

[miami man]

i just came from the auto parts store and they had two belt sizes one is for factory installed air and one is for dealer installed air.

[boostmaster]

Also good to know.

I just went to rockauto and was looking throuh their offerings. If I buy their stuff new it will be as if installed from factory right? Just want to make sure.

Since I no nothing abotu A/C, I am assuming that most of what I need is sold by them but it's not cheap. The cheap compressor was $169 the more expensive ones were over $300! BTW, I noticed alot of stuff from AC Delco-thought they only did GM stuff... Any thoughts?


Just on a quick cursory review I price all of the stuff new(using the cheapest prices) at over $600 dollars! and I'm sure I've probably missed a few things.

[FB71]

Delco is an aftermarket parts supplier, affiliated with GM. However, they make parts for all brand vehicles.

[boostmaster]

That's what I was thinking... Oh well.... Another thing that just crossed my mind was that even if I bought all of the parts brand new, I probably don't have the proper brackets. Am I correct?

[gottafesty]

The compressor bracket for the aspire is the same for the Festiva. At least with the Aspire I was looking at. The idler pulley bracket should work. However, the idler pulley off of the Aspire is a poly-groove and the Festiva is V-groove. You woulld also need the second pulley on the crank shaft. With some modification you could use the poly-groove pulleys. You just need all three to be the same (idler, crank, compressor) and then get a belt to match.