Putting it Together
Once I collected all the parts, I began the task of putting it all together. This is considerably harder than it sounds, and involved numerous trips to the hardware store/junkyard, to collect odd parts and tools.
The first step was to get the compressor mounted,
and functioning with the other accessories (water
pump/fan and alternator on my engine). The
brackets I got with my original compressor made
the job somewhat simpler. With this setup, the
compressor is put where the alternator used to be,
and the alternator is put below the compressor.
The drive belt now runs the compressor, and the
second pully on the compressor drives the alternator, on a seperate short belt.
The first problem that I ran into was how to tension the belt that runs the compressor. The alternator was mounted on a swing bracket, and this could adjust the belt in the old system. The compressor was solid mounted, so a secondary mechanism was needed.
I thought about slotting the compressor mount holes, to allow the compressor to slide, but there was a problem with that approach. On my engine, the thermostat housing was directly in line between the top of the compressor pulley and the top of the fan/water pump pulley. Thus, I determined that I would need an idler pulley to both tension the belt, and get it out of the way of the thermostat housing.
I decided to use a pulley that would press the belt in, since if I put the idler pulley on the inside, there wouldn't be enough of the fan pulley grabbing the belt to work. This required a flat idler pulley, which of course I didn't have (the idler pulley I got with the compressor was a v-belt pulley, so I assume the six-cylinder system must be a little different that my four-banger).
Anyway, I went off to the junkyard, and for $5 grabbed the first flat idler pulley I found, which happended to be the timing belt idler inside the engine of a VW Rabbit. The bolt hole was eccentric from the pulley, so you could rotate the center of the pulley to change the tension. Perfect. I got a piece of 2" x 3/16" flat iron bar, 12" long (OSH, about $1.50), and drilled a few holes in it. It mounts to two bolts in the alternator mount assembler, and tensions the belt nicely.
Once that was set up, I started up the engine, to make sure nothing would explode or take off, and engaged the magnetic clutch on the compressor to make sure everything worked okay (it did).
I then took a small piece (1" long) of aluminum angle-iron (left-over from my battery tray project), drilled a 1/2" hole in one side, and a 1/4" hole in the other. This would be the mount for my manifolds, which held all the good stuff. I countersunk the 1/4" hole, so I could use a flat-head screw to attach it to my inner (under-the-hood) fender.
I took the two manifolds, used a 1" brass extension,
and a couple of spacer washers, and the angle-iron
mount, and screwed it together, using teflon tape on
the threads. I then attached the accessories, one by
one, to the various holes in the manifolds. On one
side, I put the pressure switch (on a 2" extension),
the input from the compressor (using a barbed fitting
& hose clamp), and the output to the tank (I used the fitting on the end of the hose). On
the other side, I put the safety valve, the pressure gauge, and a female quick-disconnect
(using a 2" extension, since the manifold and the quick-disconnect were both female
attachments). All the threaded fittings were wrapped with teflon tape before attachment.
I hooked up the tank (just laying on the garage floor for now), and put a jumper cable from the battery to the pressure switch and from the switch to the compressor. Voila, instant pressure!
On the coiled hose (yellow, in the picture below) I used a male-male joiner to connect the male plug of the quick-disconnect fitting to the hose, and the second female quick-disconnect plug fit on the other side directly. The air chuck threaded directly onto the second male quick-disconnect plug.
Next came the wiring. I ran a wire from the fuse panel through the firewall, back to the pressure switch. This supplied power to the system. I drilled a hole in the pressure switch housing, and attached a small lighted rocker switch I bought at Radio Shack. Power went to this switch, and then to the "line" side of the pressure switch, and then out to the compressor from the "motor" side of the pressure switch. All the attachments were done using crimped stak-ons.
