Hi all. I'm afraid I've got another hair brained idea into my head and I'm just enquiring as to the plausibility of it. I'll get to the point, what would be involved and what would be the easiest way to rig up an engine driven compressor to drive one of these?

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=281884830949&alt=web

Is it a case of extending the spindle off the alternator and putting an extra pulley on or would it have to be cam or crank driven. I am assuming driving the compressor is the hard part and the condensing radiator is the easy part and can be fitted just about anywhere there is space in the engine bay.

If anyone could give me a bit more insight into what would need to be done and if it is a realistic idea that would be great.

Cheers.

diy bracket to hold the compressor and a longer belt ?

Do you reckon it could run off the alternator belt or would it need to be cam belt?

they never ever run off the cam belt

would need a way to raise the idle speed when its turned on too

Electric windows would be a cheaper option

Sounds like it's more plausible than I thought, by not really thinking it through I was potentially going to make things unnecessarily difficult for myself. Can't believe it didn't cross my mind to run off an existing belt and I was thinking I'd have to add extra pulleys and such. Doy.

I know it's pricey but I don't want windows open on motorways. The extra drag would cost fuel so really in the long term I'd be saving money. 😃

As for raising the idle speed mine idles a little high anyway, but I could always pull the choke out a touch. What other options do I have for raising the idle automatically when the air con is switched on if necessary?

The windows wasn't a serious option, but as steveo3002 said you will need to find some way of upping the idle speed when it's switched ON or it'll just stall the engine

May be a solenoid that pulls on the carb throttle lever when it's ON ???

Cool cool. To begin with I'll see if I can get it working at all then I'll work on the details. Thanks for your input chaps.

wouldnt mind doing it on mine , but cant really justify the costs

spose get looking for the smallest compressor and rad you can find for now

Where are you going to put the heat exchanger?

Car Builder Solutions have a combined heat/ac blower unit (still needs compressor and rad).

http://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/universal-air-conditioning-heater-kit

Ouch....that's the cost of another polo right there.

I was going to leave the standard heating in and mount the air con blowers where the glove box is. I barely use the glove box anyway.

Sounds like it's more plausible than I thought, by not really thinking it through I was potentially going to make things unnecessarily difficult for myself. Can't believe it didn't cross my mind to run off an existing belt and I was thinking I'd have to add extra pulleys and such. Doy.

I know it's pricey but I don't want windows open on motorways. The extra drag would cost fuel so really in the long term I'd be saving money.

You can't run an air-con compressor (or anything else for that matter) for 'nothing' - they ALL take power from the engine, the smaller the engine, the more noticeable this power loss is.

Regards

Thanks for all the info everyone. I will keep all this in mind for if I have money to burn on the project later. For now it has become a moot point because the used one I had my eye on went to someone else. I was hoping I'd be able to rig this up at a fraction of the cost of a new unit but missed out.