AC compressor removal tutorial

Ok, so you got a car. Now you have to ask yourself, its this a real project car, or is this just a hopped up get around car. If you still have a stereo and more seats than one, then you have a hopped up get around car. This is dedicated to people building a real project car.

Originally, I had AC on my car, just to see if it would work. Word around the block is that its hard to rig AC with SR20 installs. I did it, it wasnt. Now comes the time to rip all that hard work out. Get rid of that heavy compressor and mounting bracket and lighten up my car a bit. So, with that in mind, lets get to work!

The car used in this tutorial is a HS13 with SR20DET install, your car may differ. NOTE: DO NOT DISCHARGE FREON TO THE APTMOSPHERE, GET YOUR SYSTEM RECOVERED BY A PROFESSIONAL.
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Step 1: Take a look at the accessories being driven by pulleys. Get familiar with them, as you dont want to cut any of your power steering lines.
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Step 2: We gotta take the belt off the ps pump, due to the triple pulley system the SR20 has. To do this, we have to loosen the tension bolt located below and behind the fact of the ps pump. Loosen this, and the nut on your crossbolt, then pull down on your ps pump, and remove belt.
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Step 3: There, now once we have that belt off, we can go ahead and get the belt off the AC compressor. To do this, we need to loosen the idler pulley. Do this in the same fashion as we did with the tension bolt on the ps pump. Loosen bolt 2 first, then loosen bolt 1 until belt slides off.
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Step 4: Once the belt is off, we can take off that pulley all together. Just remove bolts 1 and 2 and remove pulley.
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Step 5: Remove the lower support bolts on your AC compressor. There are one to two more above it, I had one, as I was lazy while installing it.
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Step 6: To gain access to the work area above the AC compressor, I removed my MAF. Easy to do, just loosen the crimping mechanisim, remove support bar, then pull out.
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Step 7: There are AC lines running to the top of your compressor. We need to get them off. You'll need a bit of an extension to reach them. They're easy to spot, below is a picture of one of the lines removed.
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Step 8: Ok, you got the ac lines off your compressor. Now you have access to the top bolts. I put a jackstand underneath my car, supporting the ac compressor, so that when I took them off, it didnt fall to the ground.
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Step 9: Tada! Removed!
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Step 10: You have the brace left bolted to the motor. Lets get that off. Just simply unbolt and remove.
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Removed!
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Step 11: The condenser will be removed at another time, when I do my FMIC + Radiator upgrade. I did however remove the fan and ac lines connecting the condenser. This is rather straight forward.
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Picture of my Dad removing an electrical clip for me, I have super big hands and some stuff is hard to reach for me. He and I were both doing auto work outside, he was assisting at times on my project.
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Step 12: Now that you have come this far, you can remove the AC receiver drier too =) Simply unbolt, no trick to it. There are AC lines on top of it you will need to remove.
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Top shot of the AC lines running to the receiver drier
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Step 13: Remove the AC lines running to your firewall to your evap. You may need to do some navigating to get the lines out, I just used some bolt cutters and chopped my way through as I have no intent on ever putting this back together.
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Only things left to remove are your evap and condenser. That will be covered at another time. Enjoy =)

floh
 
And don't forget about the AC control knobs on the inside of the car! That's easily another ounce.

Aer you going to weigh the parts you removed? I'd like to see how many pounds you save.
 
Klostrophobic
And don't forget about the AC control knobs on the inside of the car! That's easily another ounce.

Aer you going to weigh the parts you removed? I'd like to see how many pounds you save.

Another tutorial for another time.
 
good work,

Im changing my waterpump and timing belt on my Skyline soon, I might do a write-up on that.
 
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