Check, Check and Check....Moving along on "Project Gramps" Volvo 244

Well it is officially summer for me and I now have some serious time to spend on the Volvo. She is moving along and thus far we have brought the car to the point where we need to spend a little bit of money to replace worn out parts.  The entire AC system was shot on the car...including the dryer, condensor, evaporator, all the AC lines and the compressor! Since this is a weekend/winter driver we decided to remove the entire AC system!!!  All of it is gone aside from the evaporator at the back of the dash!  In entirety we removed around 100 pounds of weight from the car!! The AC compressor was so shot that it sounded like it had change in it when we removed the behemoth!!!  With the AC system gone the engine bay is much cleaner!!!

One issue I ran into was figuring out how to run the power steering with the AC compressor. Both units are mounted to the same massive bracket which weighed around 25 pounds!  The Swedes designed the car where it is impossible to run the power steering without the compressor due to the belt design.  I managed to figure out a way around this by sourcing an original AC delete bracket for the power steering pictured above.  These are rare!!!  I purchased it off of a Volvo forum member for $88 and this was the last one he had.  Also included are the rare rubber AC delete covers which mount to the firewal to cover up the holes left behind due to deleted AC linesl!!

The delete bracket mounts where the AC compressor originally was.  This bracket is specifically designed for early Volvo 240s since it runs the Saginaw power steering pump with attached reservoir. The picture above is the bracket I am referring to.  I am going to spend some time cleaning it up and will hit it with some Rustoleum paint to breath some new life into it.  I am glad I figured out a way to save my power steering option!! I didnt want to end up looking like the one armed weight lifting guy in, "Lady in the Lake".  Making slow turns in a Volvo 244 takes some serious muscle! :)