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Lancia Gamma Forum
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Lancia Gamma Forum
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From: Theo Kyriacou
email: theo@lanciagammaforum.com
Date: 21 Nov 2006
Time: 07:33
I would say with some certainty that the reason the air conditioning doesn't work is because there's no cooling fan. There may be other problems with the air con but it will not work without a cooling fan and there isn't a separate fan just for the air conditioning. Without a fan to blow cold air over the evaporator coils you will only get minimal (at best) air conditioning by a ram-air effect when the car is moving at speed and no air conditioning at all when the car is stationary in traffic. If you don't know how vehicle air conditioning systems work, have a look at http://www.vehicool.co.uk/acsystem.html You should bear in mind that the Gamma's air conditioning system is quite old and would have been filled with R12 Gas which, in the UK and Europe at least, is now illegal. Modern air conditioning systems are filled with R134A gas which has smaller molecules than R12. A lot of people simply refill their old vehicle systems with the modern gas only to find that it all escapes very quickly! If you expect to get the air conditioning system working properly on the Gamma, you may find it to be expensive exercise. Then again things might be very different in your part of the world. But you might decide that you don't want air conditioning and have it removed in which case there will be plenty of space for the power steering pump. Have a look at the photo at http://www.xs4all.nl/~rudez/2006meeting/Gamma Meeting 2006/images/img_0139.jpg to see how the power steering conversion is usually done when there's no air conditioning. Personally I think it will be a shame to remove the air conditioning and no need to revert back to standard for the power steering as there's enough room to mount a fan or even two in front of the radiator. Have a look at the photo at http://www.xs4all.nl/~rudez/2006meeting/Gamma Meeting 2006/images/img_0136.jpg where you can see Erik's (from Holland) car fitted with a VW Passat radiator and two fans in front of it (you can see the mounting screws if you look carefully). The cam belts are still available and one of them (can't remember which side) is the same as on a VW so very readily available. Consortium membership is obviously a good idea (I would say that wouldn't I?) and Jack has been known to send parts all over the world. But buying a Gamma is done 90% from the heart and only 10% from the head, so don't think about it too much and go for it!
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