For the 1978 model year, the Hornet (renamed the Concord), Gremlin, and AMX (based on the Concord) received a revised A/C control panel. The upper lever switched the system between five heating/cooling modes: MAX A/C, A/C, HEAT, HI/LO and DEF. The lower lever controlled the temperature from COOL to WARM. To the left of COOL (through a detent) was COLD, basically a new name for DESERT ONLY. The owner's manual cautioned against using COLD for extended periods, especially in humid climates, to prevent evaporator freezing, just like DESERT ONLY.
I grew up with a '74 Gremlin as my mom's grocery getter. She insisted we only turn the "desert only" setting on after we left the city limits. We lived right outside Phoenix.
Did she buy it at Randall AMC/Jeep in Mesa, AZ? Randall was the Yenko and Baldwin/Motion of AMC dealers back in the late 60’s and 70’s. Home of the Gremlin 401-XR…a 304 V8 Gremlin X…transplanted with a high performance 401!!!
I could just imagine my mother doing the same thing with the signal-search radio in the Lincoln or Cadillac, only pushing the Town button in the city and the Country button in unincorporated areas... 😁
I loved the Desert Only setting on my 65 Ambassador, 68 Rebel and 70 Ambassador. I had these cars in the steamy South, Baton Rouge. When I would get into my hot car, I would put the A/C on Desert Only and the fan on high. When snow started blowing out of the center outlets, I would reduce the temperature and the fan speed. That Weather Eye would cool a hot car down quickly!
I remember that "desert only" setting scaring my mom and she never used it until one day in metro Detroit it was so hot us kids pleaded for her to turn it on- and things cooled off nicely and the world didn't end ha ha!
The "Weather Eye" HVAC system was originally developed by Nash back in the late 40's for its cars. AMC inherited it after absorbing Nash and kept using the system for decades.
Yes, I remember seeing the words Weather Eye on my grandparent's 1962 Rambler Station Wagon. As I recall, the car did not have air conditioning. Also, no seat belts, no power steering, or power brakes. The windshield wipers were vacuum-operated. Finally, the same key unlocked the doors, the tailgate, the locking glove compartment, and also served as the ignition key.
@@Dac54 In '62, the Rambler (my folks owned a Classic sedan) was considered a "compact" and power steering and brakes would have seemed silly, as it would have been for a Valiant or Chevy II. Different times.
Honestly wish we had a company like AMC today. Though it's impossible for them to survive in the current CAFE and safety requirements. A company that used everyone's supply chains to put together reliable, inexpensive vehicles.
Today’s safety and CAFE requirements only makes cars more expensive whiling lining the pockets of battery car manufacturers. We need to go back to a time where we just had better drivers and cheaper prices and more easily fixed cars
It was government regulation that (in part) was responsible for killing AMC. They spent an enormous amount of money designing a new platform to comply with stringent federal safety regulations. The big three didn't bother designing new cars; instead they complained and lobbied the government to cancel the new regulations, which it eventually did. AMC was stuck with an ahead-of-its-time crazymobile (the Pacer) that only a few people wanted.
@@bentighe4811 All safety in well made cars can be compensated for by a competent owner. Can’t say that about current day mIllEniAlS who all drive automatic. Would be great if we had that filter. Less drivers on the road.
@@mevans4953 You can compensate the amount of crashes by increasing driver competency sure, but crashes kill indiscriminately. Less drivers would be nice, sure, but unfortunately due to America's terrible public transportation and zoning setups, private transportation is a requirement to get to a job, stores, and back home. Increasing requirements would push many people into poverty due to limiting job selections, especially in less populated areas. This is all ignoring your strange comments regarding automatic vs manual transmissions (learning a manual tractor took me 15 minutes at the age of 8). Fewer manuals exist after the government destroyed most older cars through the Cash for Clunkers program, and it's not like most younger people have spare cash for a project car, so they never learn it because they don't have to. Imagine if I complained that you didn't know how to suck eggs! You don't need to because you can just buy some easter eggs at the store now, and it's less work- not knowing that skill isn't reflective of your character at all. I'd also like to dismantle your claim of 'all safety can be compensated for by a competent owner'. To what point does this extend? For a comparison of skilled drivers still needing safety, I urge you to look at nascar roll cages, safety harnesses, fireproof suits, crash barriers, and helmets. There is a point where safety can become excessive, sure. And a skilled driver is less likely to get into a crash, also true. But are you arguing against including crumple zones into cars, Having collapsible steering columns so they do not impale you in a crash, backup cameras, fancy automatic braking stuff if you're going 40 mph seconds away from a barrier, auto tire pressure warning systems, traction control, anti-lock brakes and the like? Do you genuinely think that is the greatest contributor to cost in a vehicle, and that enough consumers would willingly give up these features now that they have become accustomed to them for car manufacturers to make a new lineup? Believe me, I am unhappy with government regulations around vehicles, especially the around vehicles like the KEI truck. But many of the modern safety features costs were in R&D, now you can manufacture a LIDAR array and a car computer for less than 500$ for heaps of additional safety. I do not understand your argument.
Yes they were simple yet effective . Most modern Ac systems have too many blenddoors and actuators that require hours of labour to even access in the dash . Cha ching !
Hallelujah brother! Right now I'm facing a complete dash carrier removal to replace the driver's blend-air door motor that is stuck on full hot (NATURALLY it didn't happen in the fall...) A two-man job that I just pray doesn't leave me with a whole bunch of new squeaks and rattles. Also, the Buick factory service manual sucks... 😢
@@johndonovan7018 Non-boomer here. Cables may not be trouble-free, but they're a damn sight simpler (and cheaper if they do go wrong) than the computer modules and servos and sensors that have replaced them.
We had three Hornets with A/C and had no problem living with them. I read the owner's manual, which explained why the Desert Only setting was there and why it should not be used where there was humidity. We live in NE Ohio where there is humidity, so we just didn't twist the knob all the way to the right. That said, it was a conversation piece for any curious passenger unfamiliar with the set up. I am still AMC all the way, and wish I could still daily drive something as enjoyable as an AMC six.
AMC did things on the cheap , my good friend Wally Booth told me how AMC provided roughly $100,000 to start the racing program back in the day which they used to build a flow bench and various other component parts of an engine room, including how they designed a windage tray and gained 70+ hp getting the oil off the crank. Low budget racing, yet they were very successful. Yes, I jumper'd the clutch cycling solenoid on my 82 Seville (solenoid was bad) and it instantly filled the evaporator core with ice. I LOVe the simplicity of these early actuators - it forced you to use your brain !
I always thought that the 'Desert Only' setting was just the same as 'Recirc', as most manufacturers didn't/don't want you driving around without some outside air getting in the car. Adam, your explanation makes perfect sense.
I remember having to jerry-rig my Dodge Lancer so it would recirculate without the temperature slide on the extreme cold position. I got tired of having to chose between freezing and getting doused with cool-but-clammy outside air.
We had a number of AMC cars from the 1950s until the end of their run in 87. The AC never failed but like many people I found it amusing and sort of a party trick to get snow blowing out of the vents. I would do it for a minute or two and then switch it back lower after everyone had their laugh.
Loved this throwback. My dad had a Hornet with a desert only dial. I was always curious as a young kid what that did. I can’t recall if my Dad knew what it was, but just would say it’s only to use when in the desert…. It took 44 years but now I know. Thanks!
I pictured your dad telling you not to touch it. We had a 1976 Pontiac that dad said had a "limiter switch" or fuse. If you had A/C on, and you turned it off, you better not turn it back on within a few minutes or it blew a fuse and you had no A/C until you replaced the fuse, at least that what seemed to happen.
Nothing "wacky" it was to prevent freezing up the evaporator in humid areas. I never had a problem leaving it on Desert Only. Remember that Nash pioneered efficient "weather eye" heater designs that everyone adopted.
I agree, I believe AMC was the first to integrate A/C into the dash too (or one of the first). I had a 62 AMC American with factory A/C and it was a great air conditioner! The "all weather eye" was for cars with factory A/C, and "weather eye" just signified cars with heater/defroster but no A/C.
It's wacky to me, having never used an A/C system where freezing was a concern for the user. Or rather, one where there's anything for the user to consider besides "it's pretty hot, let's cool down using the air conditioner."
I think it was a thoughtful addition to the control fascia to have the label "Desert Only". It indicates to the user that that setting should only be used in the desert, which should make them go to the owners manual to find out why. Hopefully the owners manual explains that using the setting in a humid environment could lead to the evaporator icing over.
I had an uncle who owned an AMC Ambassador and he thought it was a great car. I do know that Chryslers were somewhat bad about the A/C freezing up especially if it was very hot and humid. All of a sudden it would start spitting ice out of the vents at you. That's no joke because I've really seen that happen.
You are correct. My parents had a 1967 Plymouth Fury that would do that only when you would go on a long trip. But man I swear you could hang meat in that car. It had the best air conditioner it never gave any problems and neither did the car.
@@czechmate6916MoPar V2 pumps and the GM CCOT (Cycling-Clutch/Orifice-Tube) were arguably the best A/C systems in terms of actual cooling ability and reliability, regardless of efficiency.
I grew up in RAINcouver, BC so A/C was not a huge priority there. By the time I moved to the Okanagan DESERT, I was riding a mountain bike! C'est le vie...
YES!! I had a 1974 Plymouth Fury "Gran Sedan," GREAT car, it was very reliable, and the A/C was ICE COLD, which I LOVED, because I'm ALWAYS too damned HOT, year 'round....but the A/C in THAT car used to cause frost to form on the vents! I've never owned another car since that used to get THAT COLD....but I welcomed that!
AMC did have some great cars. Over the years I had a 68 AMX 390 4-speed, two 69 AMX's both 390 4-speeds, a 70 Reble Machine and a 1969 AMC Hurst SC/Rambler 4-Speed. Never had a Gremlin X yet, still looking..... Thanks to Adem for keeping automotive history alive.
The AMXs were smart-looking cars! Very sporty! The Javelins must have been a compromise to target young fathers? It was a 4-seater. Speaking of, my older bro had a late 1960s Ambassador, and that was the only car I saw that the front seats folded back to make a bed! HANDY for "Lover's Lane".
In the late 70's I bought #1312 of 1500 something '69 S/C with a trashed 390 and primered body, no red, white, and blue with the snorkel hood removed (but thrown in the sale) with a stock Rambler in it's place for $450. I put a 304 from a wrecked Hornet in, no mods necessary. Had the original window sticker and all the trim including a rare 'Rouge' emblem in the glovebox, I think the list was $3200 or $3400.. still had the T-10 and all the other goodies. I never got around to anything resembling a restoration, back then it wasn't worth anything near what just a chassis and body is worth today - astronomical (for an AMC) prices on Bring A Trailer which a 19 yr old shade tree mechanic couldn't seem possible. I ended up selling it for $350(!) a couple years later so I could buy a used Yamaha TT500 flat track bike..oh, well!!
My 1966 Rambler Classic had the best A/C, in Desert Only setting was great. Combined with Westher Eye it was the best climate-control system I had in any car, it was so versatile because you could send heated or cooled air through any vent you wanted. And I could control the outlet temp.
We were an AMC family for as long as I can remember. My parents came back from Germany and had a Rambler station wagon. Driving from Knoxville, TN- to Big Spring, TX- and my mom became deathly sick. They stopped at Western auto and had a bolt on dashboard air conditioner installed. That’s how we discovered my mom was allergic to road dust. 🤯 Later, as I was about to be born, they had an Ambassador SST. My Mom was in her 9th month of pregnancy with me. They hydroplaned, hit a guard rail, and fortunately- that car was a tank. What followed, was a string of Ambassadors, Matadors, and Pacers. My Mom’s final car was a 1979 AMC Pacer wagon that was in our family over 25 years. AMC was that love it or hate it- and we loved them.
I was driving a 1973 "Levi's Edition" AMC Gremlin in the summer of 1980. Here in Texas, that was the summer of the "Great Heat Wave", where we had temps in excess of 100 degrees for weeks. I wasn't happy with the Gremlin, as the frame around the door latch posts were constantly cracking, despite welding the body panels around them on an almost weekly basis. During that summer, however, I was grateful for that "Desert Only" setting, and was happy to have it.
-On modern Mercedes Benz cars, such as my spouses '23 EQE 350+, you cannot continuously keep the recirculation flap closed. It is on a time delay; After about 5-10 minutes of driving, it will release and admit outside air into the system. The manual states that this is to prevent fogging of the windows and potential freeze-up of the evaporator. This is how modern cars have their "Desert Only" mode, though I doubt that any company today produces a system that can run the AC compressor full time. My airport car, a 2001 Subaru Outback WILL keep the setting; Once you put it on recirc, it stays there and is the same way the next time you start the car up. Great video!
My last 2 cars, a Honda and a Hyundai, have had recirculate buttons that can be made to work in any mode, even with the defroster vents, but you have to set it each time you start the car. That makes a huge difference on very cold mornings, cutting the time it takes to scrap the ice off the windshield in half. But you have to remember to set it back before driving very far or the humidity will build up and fog up the windshield.
Many modern cars have compressors that run continuously - they’re called variable displacement compressors and they don’t have clutches. Recirc doors that revert to fresh air inlet automatically are far from a new thing. My 2007 Volvo does that as well. In fact, some cars scan the incoming air from the outside ducts and detect when too many contaminates are present and then automatically close the fresh air door so the cabin air is cleaner.
@@ghostwrench2292 Interesting. Which cars exactly have these variable displacement compressors without clutches? I think that if you tell a car you want the recirc door closed, it should stay that way the way my '01 Subaru Outback does. What's funny about that car is that if you use the cruise control, it goes away when you shut the car down. You have to turn it on first, then set the speed. My Porsche is just the opposite- Bump the little arm on the left side of the column with your left middle finger and it engages at the speed that you are at. Once it is on, it is always armed. I always leave it this way. You know, you'd think there would be some standardization in the industry on all this....
@Flies2FLL vw, audi, bmw, and any of their other brands. VDC supports HF1234yf refrigerant better and it also means you get good lower idle speed cooling as the compressor full displacement is greater. Many of the light hybrids have 48V electric compressors no longer belt connected to crankshaft. The electric compressors on EV, hybrid, or light hybrid are variable speed to have variable displacement and least power consumption.
As an avid American Motors/IHC collector, that "desert only" setting was foreign to me, being from the 70f dew point deep south. Only after my stint in Arizona, did it make sense, given the system design (you can't readily freeze an evaporator when the dew point is 12f!)
In 1984 I had a 1974 Hornet hatchback with sporty trim, wheels, in bright yellow. It had desert only and i never knew why. I figured out it was coolest but never had a freeze over in NJ summers.
It might be a good time to have a video about Chrysler air temp. There are videos that you have made about Chrysler auto temp II. But the overall Chrysler corporation involvement in air conditioning. And being the pioneers of the hotel individual room air conditioning system.
The Weather Eye! I remember the Desert Only setting on our 1971 Hornet. Chrome twist knob that would rotate clockwise for "colder" with the final setting of Desert Only. I also remember the slider bars being somewhat tough to move.
My '59 Ambassador still has the decal on the firewall heater box saying equipped with American motors weather eye heating and ventilating system. It has factory ac. One of the best systems of its day as AMC had refrigeration experience through its kelvinator devision.
Similar to GM and Frigidaire. I’ve always wanted a GM-era Frigidaire fridge for my garage, just simply because it has “Manufactured by General Motors” on it.
Thank you Adam. AMC always worked on a budget and it is sad too. They did not have an option. They made use of what they had and did so much on a budget. You have to think about the potential if they had proper funding what types of cars they would have invested in as well. Jeep thrives and lives today in 2024.
@@Dukers2300 Yep, worse thing that ever happened to Jeep was getting bought by Chrysler/Fiat. I watched a video here last night about the 10 least reliable vehicles currently being sold and Jeep had 4 models on the list.
@@butchs.4239 If you want to get a Barbie Jeep for mall crawling and showing “status” they’re good for that I suppose. About as useless as a cyber truck. I’m good with my late 90s TJ and XJ’s.
I'm guessing that the AMC system had the sight glass in the AC line that you could look at to determine the state of charge. If you saw bubbles, you needed more R-12. I miss both of them, the sight glass and the R-12.
Youd be amazed that relay new cars finaly cool as well as old ones did with R-12. I personaly thought that eh its just a shittier gas, but better some worse air conditioning than a sterile planet. only systems designed for r-12 work that shugishly.
I have 2 4Runners, one is good ole R-134A, the other is the 1234-yf. We take the older one with 134A in the hottest summer days, it works a lot better. (2020,2021 for context)
I was always curious, but afraid of the "desert only" setting on my parent's 1967 Ambassador DPL. We lived in Wisconsin, so it was probably left alone!
"Desert Only" on any hot summer day anywhere until the evaporator started icing up, then switch it to normal mode. You had to have the common sense to switch it back to normal when (literally) chunks of frost started blowing out of the dash vents. LOL
Rebel, matador, ambassador were all the same platform, the javelin was its own, and the gremlin, hornet, concord, spirit, and eagle were all the same platform, and the pacer was it’s own platform.
Great explanation. When I saw the title, not knowing this was 'a thing', I instantly remembered a relatively recent 2019 journey around Italy in 43C (109degF) temperatures. When we drove along the coast (very humid) for a whole day our Citroen's evaporator froze up and we had no AC until letting the car sit for an hour to defrost!
I always quite liked my '72 4-door Matador. It didn't have A/C though. I'll always remember how the 304 V8 had plenty of torque and could instantly light up the tires from a stop. At high speeds the power was poor compared to my 1970 Chrysler Newport Convertible, with its 440 Magnum (375 hp) though. My next car was a '78 Volare Wagon, with the gutless, but reliable 225-2bbl slant six (Super Six). I sold the Matador in 1983.
Someone had mentioned Weather Eye as being from the late 1940s, but it was actually introduced. Also, if you've ever seen the dash on a 1954 Nash with air conditioning, it is very cool with... all vents coming through the dash. That is because Nash pioneered the installation of all air conditioning components under the hood, so all air came through the dash. Nash was the first car to do so. Especially Cadillac and Lincoln held onto the evaporator in the trunk combined with the drafty roof vents directly on the head and necks of the four outboard seating positions until the late 50s. Whether Eye was considered the gold standard of automobile HVAC systems.
When you have crap air conditioning, it sounds like a dream. I had a 69 Impala wagon, year's ago and it had one hell of a AC unit. The paint was cracking but it had a stonking 327, two speed transmission with pos- traction. Miss those simpler times. Really enjoyed the video. New subscriber.
Although people mock it as primitive and low tech, it was simple and easy to repair. R12 was available everywhere and I can still remember it cost under $5 a can in the 80s. Modern cars have the HVAC system on the CAN BUS system so it is talking to the other systems in the car to disrupt other vehicle systems when a problem is detected. HVAC system components are also priced a little insanely now.
That $5 is equivalent to roughly $20 today. You can get a bottle of refrigerant today for $15. I'd let you do the math, but you've already shown you can't. So, for the record, the actual cost of automotive refrigerant has gone down in the past 40 years...
Interesting feature but all they had to do was put in a low pressure switch that would prevent the evap from getting below freezing and rename the setting to "max" or something like that. The controls would tell the compressor to run constantly but the LPS would prevent freezeups.
I like the Javelin the Hornet, AMX, and Rebel. Great cars. Had a friend years ago in the '70's who parents bought the Twins of theirs a 2 year old Gremlin with the six. Those couldn't tear it up. That was a tough little car. We had a gravel high school student parking lot. It had TWO light poles in it about 300 feet apart. We would do figure eights between them. The smaller cars did better. The bigger Badder cars would drift out. The twins were really good with their Gremmie, as they called it. Thanx Adam for this.
I hadn’t seen the Desert setting before, but I did have an old Toyota and Jeep than the A/C was likely dealer installed because the A/C and heat did not blend and you could ice up the system if used on full cold for too long. Seemed normal as we understood what was happening.
I had a 1974 AMC Javelin in 1977 in southwest Indiana. It’s a very humid river valley area. When I would use “Desert only” setting on the AC, white frost would blow out of the vents and condensation would cover the outside of the windshield and windows. You’d have to turn on the windshield wipers.
I remember these in the pull-a-part junkyards when I looked at the AMCs. I also seem to remember a dimmer control that had "gone" as the lowest setting. Good times.
I hadn't seen anything like that. I would have thought that was a marketing thing and assumed that it was the equivalent of the MAX setting. That was some neat information. Thanks for posting.
For the 1978 model year, the Hornet (renamed the Concord), Gremlin, and AMX (based on the Concord) received a revised A/C control panel. The upper lever switched the system between five heating/cooling modes: MAX A/C, A/C, HEAT, HI/LO and DEF. The lower lever controlled the temperature from COOL to WARM. To the left of COOL (through a detent) was COLD, basically a new name for DESERT ONLY. The owner's manual cautioned against using COLD for extended periods, especially in humid climates, to prevent evaporator freezing, just like DESERT ONLY.
"It's the good cars that sell". Old car business saying. AMC cars didn't sell. I'm from this era. Easy to say they're cool now as antiques, but these things were a mish-mash of parts bin parts from GM, Ford and Chrysler. The quality of them was terrible.
I had an 83 AMC EAGLE SX4. Nice fun car. Still miss it. It had a basic HVAC control system. Not complicated, easy to use. AMC did incorporate a vacuum control on the hot water for the heater, which eventually failed. Again, a cable on a valve would have been so much easier. I can only assume this was some creation from one of the other manufacturers and AMC glomed onto it. I have found, at least in GM cars, the most rampant HVAC failure in the systems has been the vacuum doors. In the case of newer cars the vacuum is either gone or assisted with plastic gears which crack and fall a part and are terrible to get at to replace. The best system is the old non vacuum doors operated by levers. My GM motorhome was built with the dreaded vacuum motor door system in the HVAC. When I bought said RV, NONE of the ventilation doors were working. So no fresh air, no heat and no AC. Good system. After spending more time then I care to think about attempting to try to get them to work even a little bit, I forced them open and placed a block to keep them open. Now the system works and has ventilation all the time. Why they have to make systems complicated and in the long run, more costly to the consumer is a joke. Another item that is another sham on the consumer is electric windows. You pretty much cannot buy a car without electric windows. Sure, they are nice when they work........ But they will shut down. The manual cranks have always been dependable. AMC used a cable system from the motor to the window crank gears. That cable had a limited life and would eventually have the plastic inside ball up and seize the cable that turns, freezing the system. That cable replacement was pretty expensive and when DaimlerChrysler bought AMC, those prices doubled.
Im with u on the power windows, hate them too, and in past I avoided buying a car if it had them, but as u point out its now unavoidable. Bring back the crank please.
I agree with you except on the power windows. Both my trucks are crank window, one is a 2000 and the other a 2008 and holy crap if I want to roll down the passenger window I have to take off my seat belt and lean all the way over. God forbid I need to do it while driving or with a load of tools in the passenger seat. Also, I've had cranks break off or strip gears. Never in my life had a power window go bad, but I've helped a buddy replace the guts of one and it isn't too bad.
@@tothemaxx1991 -- you are the lucky one. I have had electric window problems on a chevy Caprice classic, a Cadillac Eldorado and a VW Cabrio which got so bad you had to play with the buttons to get it to move. The Motor has Relays built into it and its the contacts that go bad. IT IS UNBELIEVEABLY HARD to find and replace that motor/relay set. The motor itself is traditionally VW expensive. You can keep the electric windows, I want cranks.
My first car was a 74 VW Rabbit. My dad drove it, my mom drove it, and then when I was old enough to drive, I drove it. The interior was almost identical to a Beetle. The A/C was dealer-installed, so it had separate controls from the heater. Therefore, you could run both together, heat at the feet and cooled air in your face. Seemed more comfortable to me, cause I could adjust it how I wanted it. Plus, it had _wing windows,_ so you could hold your cigarette in such a way so the smoke got sucked out the wing window. Not sure when (or why) they stopped making those. The last vehicle I had that still had them was my 92 F150. My buddy had a 72 AMC Hornet, which was basically a Gremlin with a trunk.
Early 1980s Volvo 240s had a similar compressor cycle control for the AC. It appeared as a random small knob - separate from the rest of the climate controls - with a pointer line and a position indicator consisting of a ring painted on the dash starting blue and shifting to red for the last area of the knob revolution. It was totally confusing, and most consumers thought it was some sort of additional heat control - turning it to the red when the AC was blowing too cold. Of course, the red was the same as the "desert setting," locking the compressor on. My family had a 1984 Volvo with this control and being a nerdy kid I read about its operation in the manual - but how to set this knob was a mystery to every other Volvo owner I ever encountered. Unrelated, my dad wanted an ammeter in the car to show the charge/discharge rate of the battery. The dealership said they had this as an option, but when we picked the car up it had what they called an "amb" meter - i.e. An ambient temperature gauge. To make matters worse, it was in celsius .. an unforgivable blunder for a U.S. market vehicle. My dad hated that car and was quite happy when it died an untimely death.
*Chryslers **_"Air-Temp"_** A/C of the 1960s was perma-set on **_"DESERT-ONLY"_** from the factory. On low Arizona MoPar owners reported frostbite conditions while Sportsman Magazines all across the country showed Deer being cured out hanging in the back of Plymouth's. hahaha LOL Good Video KUTGW*
Our '69 AMC station wagon had very similar control. One difference was that the fan control was infinite (rheostat), which I remember thinking was pretty cool. In west Texas, Desert Only was helpful, especially with all that station wagon glass.
I had a 76 jeep J10. It had the separate AC system that was bolted to the bottom of the dash. It was too knobs. Fan speed and level of cooling. The heater and defrost doors were vacuum operated. I worked on a 73 J10 that also had the vacuum doors. Whoever was working on it in the past, had the vacuum lines backwards. The blend door was cable controlled. I remember the air conditioner working as it should, but I rarely used it.
@rareclassicCars. Can you please make a video explaining the difference between an alternator and a generator and the transition from 6 volt to 12 volt systems. Thanks, big fan nice video
I'd like to say I dig what AMC was going for in terms of using kinda the same design language for the hood and grille as they did the Wagoneer (the step-up/step-down element)
Don’t remember that setting on the ‘73 Gremlin we had, but I guess it was there. Cheapest car with A/C my parents could find. I remember the Yorx compressor. I also remember the carb being replaced, trying to get it to run, the rivets on the (torn) Levi’s seats that burned in summer, and the rope needed in later years needed to gain enough pulling speed to slam the door shut from sagging hinges and busted latch post. A true lemon.
Body man for a AMC/JEEP dlr from 76 - 79.. The Pacer doors were HEAVY, 2 person take off w/ moans and groans.. They had a door hinge recall on Pacers and HATED painting and swapping out , did couple hundred..ALSO the trucks were tinny and basic..On the good side, bought a 75 Wagoneer , 4in lift , 350 buick , Mick tom tires and that would crawl over huge boulder's low range idoling , what a beast.. AH Memories..
Hi Adam, good video! If I am incorrect, I will eat my words. On the heat-A/C mode panel, YES ! said mode panel and not control panel. ALL of the mode(s) A/C, heat and defrost take the ambient air from outside the car passenger compartment and bring it in. "The desert only" mode, recirculates the ambient passenger compartment air over and over again. With this said, there is LESS chance of evaporator freeze up, because the A/C system is cooling and evaporating the inside air in closed loop. In plane English, A/C mode is normal A/C, but in the mean time desert only mode is what most automobile manufacture(s) call "max A/C". The air-conditionings job is to cool the air, but in the mean time it's primary job it to remove the humidity. Pleas reply. Dave...
I got a 1990 honda civic 3dr new and when I picked the trim I wanted, the dealer made it up by adding the features to a base model car- which just meant adding a factory A/C. When I picked it up, the salesman guy said AND THE AC IS IN AND WORKS GOOD, started the car and turned it up full blast, and the car filled with opaque white fog... It never fogged that hard again, but it was the strongest AC I ever used. If you were accelerating hard enough up a hill, you could hit the ac button and the tires would chirp from the little bit of extra torque that wasn't going to the ac compressor anymore, and it would blow a bit of fog on very humid days, which would also fog up the instrument cluster.
My dad was a mechanic, and he was a factory-trained GM A/C tech. He worked over the A/C on our 1976 Caprice Classic, and it would blow snow when turned all the way up too. I wish my current car could do that.
You don't want that massive temperature differential. The reason those early cars would blow snow is because the air distribution system was under designed. You don't want to feel like your car has a draft, you want the interior temperature to be uniform at the point you set it.
I’ve been watching your videos for a while now and I do enjoy them. I’m upper 50s so all these 70s cars you discuss remind me of simpler times. I do not recall you saying you owned manny of these cars before but you did mention owning AMCs in this video. How many cars do you own? What are their makes and models?
AMC was a great car company and sorely underrated. The Gremlin was a very reliable , practical and fun car to drive. Their 232 straight six was a workhorse. With a few exceptions , like the AMX and the javelin , the body styles they developed weren’t popular. I wish I held on to my Gremlin to this day.
My 84 BMW also has 2 separate boxes, one for AC one for Heat, no way to make air pass over both coils. But they did figure out how to use one temperature control knob to do both heating and cooling modes, though you had to select AC mode manually with a switch to enable it AND set the vent slider to 0 manually.
I'm sure you know that nash merged with kelvinator and developed the 1st "modern type" of automotive air conditioning, so they probably just left it alone in order to save money
One of my burnout friends in high school had a gremlin- primer gray with racing slicks- the weather eye, written in cursive, always made me chuckle… never knew weather or not it would ever work again-- to my knowledge, it never did 😀
My mom had a 1980 Ford Fairmont wagon that had the desert only feature, we weren't in the desert but lived in a hot and humid environment, and it would blow chunks of frost on that setting.
Yes it was a clutch control on your compressor but most Japanese cars had this also which was frustrating because no one knew anything about it. Not only did it keep your compressor running but it also kept fresh air getting in the cabin
I remember the 'Desert Only' from a friend's car, iirc it had a knob that said "Cold, Colder, Coldest, Desert Only' and i always wondered what it would do - imagined like snow in the car :)
classic cars with AC are very strange to me- In Germany cars didn''t have AC until the late 90s- and it didn't come as standard until the mid 00s. So for me it is something modern and I am always surprised to see it in vintage cars, when in reality AC in the US was available shortly after the phillips screw was invented..
While we are on the topic, mid 80s Chevy wagons with the small B-8 had a drop-out system on the AC to give the car a little more scat from stop lights or on hills. (something like 5-10 seconds off) Probably triggered by low vac / high engine load. Memory is foggy, but recalling either the relay or the ECM circuit would fail for a no AC condition, despite everything else being ok. I jumped a few of those relays and never got a complaint from the customers.
My Grandfather had a Nash-Rambler dealership (Pre-AMC name change) my Dad owned a lot of Nash and Rambler cars. They actually had a refrigerator/freezer company develop the air-conditioning. According to my Dad the a/c was so cold that the outside of the windows fogged up.
Great video. My 1965 AMC Rambler had the aftermarket-like underdash evaporator with easy-to-close outlet louvers to redirect the airflow to the heater outlets. Or you could use the A/C outlets in the winter to dry your hair on the way to work. It was essential to make sure the cable-actuated underhood heater hot-water valve would close completely in the summer. The York-style compressor shown really robbed engine power, the GM cylindrical-case swash-plate compressor may have "floated" the pistons at high RPM, limiting the power-robbing effect without undue strain on the thermal expansion valve. Driving my VW at 100mph for an hour destroyed the expansion valve, a $1,000 repair. When I first saw "DESERT ONLY" I laughed because there wasn't a single desert within 2,000 miles of Chicago. I believe there was a later NTSB law which forced all cars to require the defrost function to be enabled by sliding all the levers to the right, which became universal and no doubt saved some lives. My grandfather drove a Matador and it was the ugliest car I'd ever seen, but it was fast. To my surprise, I'd already subscribed to this channel and no wonder, it is highly informative and no-nonsense. Thanks!
I always loved the AMC Eagle Kammback. What’s not to love about a factory jacked-up Gremlin with AWD! I still see them, along with other AWD Eagle models putting around in Spokane. Got to remind those Outback owners who came first!
Make sense from a condensation standpoint. How so many of you live in the humidity I’ll never understand. Everytime I travel to the Midwest or back east I’m amazed by the greenery, but humidity is terrible. 😂
That's why I love my Dacia it has a simple freeze protection sensor that is a bit over sensitive ao I added a potentiometer in parallel so I can actually further extend the cycle duty of the compressor to create my own dessert mode. When driving along I keep it at a rate that is just enough of cooling and when I need to slow down I turn up the compressor all the way so I use some of that potential energy. Coldest I got out of the vents was -15°C until the evaporator frooze.
Call it strange or wacky if you wish, it worked, it was simple, it worked and there was nothing confusing about working it. The most strange heater/A/C I remember was the mid-1960's Pontiac full size in which was very easy to confuse with the exact same looking radio. Easy to confuse especially at night. Out of the cars I have owned/own our 1980 Eagle has the best A/C duct temperatures of all. It has the same control as the 76 Matador indicated.
