Auto Climate control in a Minivan

[TurboOmni08]

I am getting ready to attempt to swap the auto climate control from my 86 NewYorker Sedan to my 90 Caravan. I don't have the NewYorker here with me so I am posting up to get an idea if this is even possible.

I am looking here on-line at someone's website on doing the conversion from a Lebaron to a Daytona and looking at the diagram of the airbox. I have a FSM for my Mini and the two pictures don't look at all alike. Is this just simply due to the inaccuracy of the diagram on the website or is the minivan its own animal when comes to the airbox?

Even if they are worlds different does it seems to me that all Chryslers (both cars and vans) share the same control head, which means to me that the vac system must share the same basic functions. So then it becomes only an issue of fitment and mounting to make the system work even if the physical heater box is different. Make sense?

Any tips would be great!

[TurboOmni08]

I have aquired the complete climate contol system from an 86 NewYorker. It seems that this system is different from the later models. It has two plugs on the back of the head unit instead of one. Can anyone shed any light on if I would be better off to get a newer unit or will this one be ok and what are the differences?

[MiniMopar]

The 86 unit will be completely self-contained. I'm not sure about the 90+ unit, as it may tie into the serial bus between the SBEC and the body computer. I know the navigator does, making it not possible to put a 90+ navigator into a 89- car.

I transplanted an ATC out of an 87 LeBaron into my 86 Daytona. I did it without cutting into my 86 harness. If you take the time to dissect the dash harness of the donor car and separate the ATC circuits, you'll see that there are only a few interconnects from the ATC circuits and the rest fo the harness. Specficially, power from the fan circuit and ground. Then there are a few extra things needed for the control mmodule...same stuff that the navigator uses (headlamp signals, battery power, ignition power, etc). Don't forget to get the aspirator. This is used to measure the ambient air temperature inside the passenger compartment. I forgot mine and had to build my own.

[TurboOmni08]

I just got done tracing down all the wires from my 86 wiring diagram book to my 90 minivan book. Everything I need wire-wise can come from either the existing climate control or from the radio.

Questions-
Are the orange wires "Illumination" or "Dimmer"? Because I have both orange wires and a yellow/black wire that go to "dash lighting". The one part of wiring diagrams I can't read are the switches, I know they all go to the lightswitch, but not which wire coming from the switch I need for each one.

Does the part of the vac module that is mounted in the airbox need to be IN the box? I assume it was placed in with the A/C condenser to keep it cooler, but is that really needed for it to work properly?

Is the fan speed resistor built into the vac module?

[MiniMopar]

Are the orange wires "Illumination" or "Dimmer"? Because I have both orange wires and a yellow/black wire that go to "dash lighting". The one part of wiring diagrams I can't read are the switches, I know they all go to the lightswitch, but not which wire coming from the switch I need for each one.

There's two illumination feeds from the headlamp switch on most models. The orange wire is from the dash lighting dimmer. The yellow wire with the orange stripe is an un-dimmed dash light indication. The electronics that have vacuum florescent displays, like the ATC control or the navigator, can't make use of the dimmer circuit. They use the indication signal instead to dim the display to a fixed value, but still use the dimmer circuit for the button backlighting.


Does the part of the vac module that is mounted in the airbox need to be IN the box? I assume it was placed in with the A/C condenser to keep it cooler, but is that really needed for it to work properly?

I seem to recall there being a heatsink on it. This is for the fan motor controller. I would try to keep it cooled if possible. I actually had to transfer the ATC parts to another HVAC unit, as the donor had been in a crash. The spot for the module was clearly marks and had screw holes and everything. It was trivial to dremel-out the hole for it.

[daytonaturbo87]

Hey I've got the stuff for the same swap, early climate control unit with the two plugs on the back. I also disected it from the donor harness so I could just drop it in my car as a seperate sub-harness.

Does anyone have a pinout diagram for the dual plug unit?? I want to make sure I've got it hooked up right and I'd like to be able to test the unit to make sure it powers up.

And also, what years used the two plug climate control unit? I know the later years didn't but not sure what year the change happened.