Golden Lion Grrrages

1957 Air Conditioning

Before 1957, AC units were largely unchanged since the first systems of the 1940 Packard. There was an engine driven compressor, a condensor in front of the radiator, and an evaporator in the trunk. If you wanted cooling, you turned on the compressor and the fans in the trunk. Outside air entered via scoops in the rear quarter panel area, was cooled and blown into the passenger compartment. This worked but comfort was lacking; there was little control of cool air as far as temperature, fan speed, and blending with cabin air.
1957 was a pivotal year for AC. The evaporator was moved to the area between the firewall and the dashboard and now you were able to blend cool air with outside air as well as modulate temperature with the heater. Chrysler described this as

Temperature control in the 1957 Air Conditioner is secured through a reheating process. For summer operation, air is dehumidified and cooled as it passes through the evaporator coil and then reheated by the heater core to a temperature that is selected by the driver.

To accomplish this, there was one slider control and one On-Off switch. Behind these controls were two microswitches and a recirculating door powered by a "power piston". While this doesn't sound too bad, if you stick your head under the dash on an AC car you will see a rats nest of wiring required to get the job done. And that "power piston", it operates off of engine oil pressure. Yes, there is an oil line that comes off the engine, goes to a solenoid switch valve, then to the power piston. But wait, we still have to return the oil. There is another oil line that goes to the driver side valve cover where it dumps the return oil. 1957 and 1958 are the only years to use this oil powered piston motor; 1959 brought the vacuum door motors we know and love.
To get defroster in 57 and 58, since we don't have vacuum door motors, there is a dial under the blower knob which indicates you rotate the dial for defog. This dial is attached to a gear which pulls a cable. The cable pulls a lever at the heater box to close off the floor discharge ducts, forcing air up and out the defrost.
How well did the AC work? Burt Bouwkamp told us of the complaints from back seat passengers. They were not getting enough cool air. This necessitated a "snout" to be added to the distribution box. I have yet to see this snout but others with AC Cs and Ds have it.

Here are pictures of the diagrams and of the system.


The microswitches


The power piston











There is a lot going on.


This diagram of the belts is from the 1958 service manual. You won't find this in the 57.
On a car with no air and power steering, there is no idler. The ps pump moves for tension.

Here are some of the differences between an AC and non AC car:
The radiator, the generator, the crank pulley, the water pump pulley, the number of belts and their lengths. The wiring for the AC components. The heater control is different. You need the oil lines for the power piston, and the driver side valve cover for the oil return line. I am sure there are more. Surprise, the fan is the same AC and non AC.

On this car, it appears most if not all of the AC components are here. Although I will get and install new wiring for the AC components, I do not expect to get the system operating.

I came across photos of the AC evaporator on the grey C showing the location of the heater fooler and the routing of the wires.




The "fooler" heat element is shown with the wires.








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