Very late to the party, but here is my experience:
I bought a new system for my 73 not too long ago. It was a replacement for the factory system, and I knew exactly what I was in for as I have a slightly older system on my 70 Camaro. That car has the one that does not have all the electronics of their newer kit as it is all cable driven. It is certainly true that these systems do not blow as much air through them as a factory system, but the thing is I never expected it to. When you compare a standard factory system blower motor to this system there is simply no comparison in terms of airflow. The fan in the CAA system is about a third the size and no matter how hard you spin it, it won't compare. Then again I knew that since I already had one of their systems on another car.
Knowing this, how did it all work out for me? Well I have a slight "advantage" or not depending on how you look at it. I live in Oz, but go back to the US regularly. I bought my system while I was there and brought it all back in my luggage. When discussing the system with them, I could tell they hadn't sold too many of them for our cars, and as I was replacing a factory system there were a couple nuances they didn't get quite right. The main one was how to connect to an existing centre air duct. At the time they included a square connector when the factory is oval. I had to modify it myself by using some foam weatherstrip to seal it up. Not sure if they sorted that by the time Greg's system was order. All in all I think the system as a whole is pretty OK and I didn't have any real trouble. Another thing to note is that my factory system had already been modified with a Sanden compressor and had a mount for one on it already. I did not use the CAA mount at all, in fact it's sitting in a box on a shelf still
Install itself went about like I expected. These things are never exactly right, what bolt on part usually is not to mention a complicated electronic device?? They gave me two sets of instructions which did help, one was the 71-73 specific ones, but they also gave me a 69-70 set. Can't remember exactly why that was good, but trust me it was. I refer to both of them just to see the differences in how things were connected. Maybe one was for a non AC car an one was for an AC car? I forget
After I had my system installed, I charged it (I have my own ways
) and it worked great. For about 5 minutes until all the refrigerant leaked out
After many many many many hours of mucking around (did I say many? I mean MANY) I found that I had used a longer screw than advised to strap the evaporator under the dash and put a hole in it
I am 99% sure this is due to me not paying enough attention to the listed screw sizes, but as you know the documentation is sometimes not easy to understand. That being said, I measure the screw I used and it was in fact too long based on the document spec so it was my fault. What to do??
What any American would do. I called them and explained the situation. They agreed to send me a repaired unit at "no cost"
What did that mean? Well, I flew to the US (was doing that anyway), paid for the WHOLE unit to be sent to them, they fixed it for free, then charged me return postage to my US address so I could put it back in my luggage and bring it back. Total cost? $250 in US postage fees (UPS express etc) plus my plan ticket.
Put it all back together when I got home, charged it up and VOILA! I have AC in my Mustang Convertible. I have a thermocouple to test for efficency, and it appeared to cool just fine. I think I got down to about 3-4C (37F) when on the day it was about 28C (82F) perfectly acceptable if not brilliant stats for a car AC system.
So, in summary I made some mistakes, the kit was not perfect, but all in all I am actually happy. In fact, happy enough to think about putting something like this in my Australian XB Falcon.
I hope this helps someone, but if not happy reading anyway
Greg (another one)
