As a result of one of our non-AC 430MEL 1960 Squarebirds owners expressing a desire to perhaps go the Classic Auto Air AC aftermarket route, I have been doing some research into what would be needed to do this. I talked with Steve at CAA about this, and found that they do not market the necessary mounting bracket for the 430 AC compressor. Only the one for the 352. However, I have found a company who does a lot of CAA installs of their "Perfect Fit" AC system, including doing a few with 430MEL engines in them. They know how to make that compressor mounting bracket to work with the 430MEL.
Thanks to Carl Heller ~ partsetal, he sent me a couple of pix of the 430MEL AC water pump set up. Some years ago, he pulled the OEM AC system out of a '60 Squarebird parts car that was going nowhere, and put it into a Squarebird that was going somewhere. He said that he did not have to make anything to make it all fit. Except, of course, he had interior work to do, and a swap out of the Bendix booster to the KH booster under the dash, and adding a plenum box, etc.. But the swap of the AC system itself was a direct swap.
It turns out that the non-AC 430MEL engines come with a flat looking 2 sheave/grooves water pump pulley, totally unlike the 352 water pump pulley. Like our 352 non-AC engines come with a single sheave pulley and our AC 352 with a two belt pulley, one driving the compressor. When you add a CAA unit to a non-AC Squarebird, you have to come up with another pulley set up to give you 3 belt drives.. In the case of the AC 430MEL conversion, since it already has a flat 2 belt water pump pulley on it, you need the flat single pulley to give you the three belt drives that you will need to make the CAA system work. The 2 groove water pump pulley that is already in place on the 430MEL engine is the B8S 8509-A. The second pulley on the AC equipped 430MEL engine is the single sheave B9SZ 8509-A (Thanks to jopizz for helping find the part #'s!) That second pulley goes in front of the dual pulley. You may need to make or replace the shim to keep the additional pulley from causing the fan blade to hit the back of the radiator. If you already have a dual AC 430MEL setup, you should also have the proper shim to keep that from happening.
I will post some pix that Carl sent me, and also that Rob sent me regarding his 430MEL engine bay. First a pic of the usual non-AC 352 set up with just a single belt. You have to get a 3 groove water pump pulley from an factory AC 352 engine. Then you will see a couple of pix of Carl's set up after swapping over the OEM AC system from his 430 parts car to a non-AC 430 working Squarebird. Apparently, that single belt pulley slips right over the nub on the face of the 2 belt pulley. Then some pix of what Rob's non-AC 430 engine bay looks like! You can see clearly his 2 groove flat shaped (no large cone or large bell shaped part on the front of the pulley). Enjoy!
Thanks to Carl Heller ~ partsetal, he sent me a couple of pix of the 430MEL AC water pump set up. Some years ago, he pulled the OEM AC system out of a '60 Squarebird parts car that was going nowhere, and put it into a Squarebird that was going somewhere. He said that he did not have to make anything to make it all fit. Except, of course, he had interior work to do, and a swap out of the Bendix booster to the KH booster under the dash, and adding a plenum box, etc.. But the swap of the AC system itself was a direct swap.
It turns out that the non-AC 430MEL engines come with a flat looking 2 sheave/grooves water pump pulley, totally unlike the 352 water pump pulley. Like our 352 non-AC engines come with a single sheave pulley and our AC 352 with a two belt pulley, one driving the compressor. When you add a CAA unit to a non-AC Squarebird, you have to come up with another pulley set up to give you 3 belt drives.. In the case of the AC 430MEL conversion, since it already has a flat 2 belt water pump pulley on it, you need the flat single pulley to give you the three belt drives that you will need to make the CAA system work. The 2 groove water pump pulley that is already in place on the 430MEL engine is the B8S 8509-A. The second pulley on the AC equipped 430MEL engine is the single sheave B9SZ 8509-A (Thanks to jopizz for helping find the part #'s!) That second pulley goes in front of the dual pulley. You may need to make or replace the shim to keep the additional pulley from causing the fan blade to hit the back of the radiator. If you already have a dual AC 430MEL setup, you should also have the proper shim to keep that from happening.
I will post some pix that Carl sent me, and also that Rob sent me regarding his 430MEL engine bay. First a pic of the usual non-AC 352 set up with just a single belt. You have to get a 3 groove water pump pulley from an factory AC 352 engine. Then you will see a couple of pix of Carl's set up after swapping over the OEM AC system from his 430 parts car to a non-AC 430 working Squarebird. Apparently, that single belt pulley slips right over the nub on the face of the 2 belt pulley. Then some pix of what Rob's non-AC 430 engine bay looks like! You can see clearly his 2 groove flat shaped (no large cone or large bell shaped part on the front of the pulley). Enjoy!
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