2.  Once through the grommet in the engine bay, turn the harness towards the blower, thread behind the blower, following the existing harness along to the fender. 

3.  Run the harness along the inner fender and down to the compressor.

Key features:

1.  Divides the large dash board space into smaller insulated compartments so that the cold AC air is not heated by the surrounding metalwork.

2.  Provides directional centre and lower foot/leg vents.

3.  Provides rotary fan and heat controls.  

4.  Provides A/C, windscreen demist and recirculation controls.

5.  Windscreen demist, recirculation and temperature blending are servo controlled. The original mechanical cables and levers are no longer required.

Right-hand drive assembly:

Left-hand drive assembly:

We are looking to produce a set of photos for this section.  If you have a LHD Landrover install, please do contact us sales@classicretrofit.com

Fill the system with 600g of R134A refrigerant.  Do this with the system OFF.  Do not fill with 'cans' - use a proper A/C filling machine or take the car to an A/C centre.   Do not add any oil.  Oil is already in the compressor.

There are many ways of routing the refrigerant hoses; see below for the for the basic circuit. As long as you follow this scheme, you can route the hoses as you wish.   Note the placement of the charging ports.

Please note that we provide 4m of each size which should suit most applications.  Contact us if you need more but the goal is to minimise hose length to increase efficiency.  Measure twice, cut once!

Identify the fittings noting that there are two different hose sizes (#6 and #8) used. The larger #8 hose is used between evaporator and compressor and between compressor and condenser only. 

Position of charge ports is up to you and dependent on installation.  Dry fit the hoses without the clips and cut hoses to size for your installation.

The compressor sub assembly comes pre assembled.  Identify the holes in the chassis rail on the opposite side to the steering box.  The heavy black cable on the compressor uses one of the bolts for the earth.  Clean the chassis back to shiny metal on this bolt hole to provide a good electrical earth.

Right-hand drive compressor assembly onto chassis rail:

Left-hand drive compressor assembly onto chassis rail:

From under the vehicle, offer up the compressor to the inside of the chassis rail and attach with the three long M8 bolts and nuts provided.  Use one of the bolts to secure the black earth cable.

In order to create space in the engine bay for the Classic Retrofit AC blower unit, the original fresh air inlet plenum needs to be modified.    The right-hand drive version is shown in the images below, the left-hand drive version and modification process is symmetrically opposite.

1.  Remove the air inlet grille on top of the fender.  Undo the screws to remove the air inlet plenum from the vehicle. You may also need to remove the bracket fixing the wheel arch to the fender.

2.  Using the cutting template provided, mark the cut line on the plenum.

3.   Cut the Plenum on the cut line (a circular cutting disk works well), and clean the edge up with sandpaper or similar on a flat surface to make the cut edge co-planar.

4.  Fit the new metal end cap with it's tab's clipping over the plenum. Adjust the angle of the tabs with an adjustable spanner to match the plenum surface if required. Whilst pushing the end cap and plenum together to compress the sealing foam gasket, drill 2.5mm holes into the plastic plenum through the holes in the end cap tab. Fix the end cap to the plenum with the 4mm screws provided.

5. Reassemble the plenum onto the vehicle under the front fender. 

1.  Modern heater core

2.  Modern A/C evaporator (parallel flow type)

3.  Heater shutoff valve (when in A/C mode)

4.  Servo operated temperature blending.  No more cables!

5.  Servo operated fresh air valve

6.  High performance blower fan. 

During testing, we have upgraded our alternator to the 100A unit (as fitted to the Discovery).  This has proven to be ample to run the car and the A/C but if you have more accessories you may need to explore fitting a higher output unit.

Earth Straps
It is strongly advised to inspect and/or replace battery and earth straps.  The studs and landing surface of any earth points should be cleaned until shiny.  It is important that any earth strap lug sits flat on the landing surface so that maximum contact area is achieved.  The same is true for attaching the compressor earth to the chassis.

Batteries
The kit has been tested with standard batteries typically 75Ah.  The battery must be in good order.  The A/C will use some battery reserve at idle.  If you have a lesser rated battery, you run the risk of depleting it sooner but this is negated by having a high output alternator.  Settings can be changed within the A/C ECU to guard against this at the detriment to A/C performance at low engine RPM. 

Although the installation of the components can be safely undertaken on a DIY basis, when it comes to filling and commissioning of the system, it is essential to seek professional assistance.

Air conditioning hoses run at high pressure and must be correctly crimped and pressure tested with the correct equipment.

We recommend that the initial filling and commissioning of the system is carried out by a qualified air conditioning engineer.

We absolutely DO NOT recommend that the system is filled from ‘cans’ of R134a.  Step away from the ebay or Harbour Freight DIY fill kit and seek professional help.

Some of the photos below show hoses installed - leave the hoses off for the moment.

Install:

1.  Remove the plastic grille and set aside.

2.  Fix the top brackets to the underside of the slam panel, then attach the left and right hand side hockey sticks behind the top brackets and behind the lip in front of the bottom of the Radiator.  Assemble loosely at this stage.

3.  On the vehicle left side, reposition the horn and install the drier on it's mounting plates as shown.

4.  Place the fan bracket over the condenser and offer up from the bottom of the vehicle as shown. If clearance between the front of the condenser and the diagonal stay-bars is very close you may need to adjust the angle of the stay bars by spacing their bottom fixing point forwards.

5.  Fix the fan bracket to the hockey sticks and tighten all the other bolts.

6.  Attach the fan to the bracket in this orientation.

The condenser install is now complete.   Leave the grille off until the hoses have been fitted.

The core components are:

1. Replacement heater and A/C blower unit (mounts in original heater location).

2. Electric A/C compressor

3. Condenser and fan assembly.

4. Dashboard and controls update package

5. ECU and wiring.

6. Hoses and fittings

RHD Fitment

LHD Fitment

Welcome to our online installation manual for Electrocooler, our electric A/C into Landrover Defender 200 and 300 Tdi models.

The manual is divided into sections in this forum - choose which section is relevant to your installation based on your Defender model, left or right hand drive. 

NB: At this time these instructions are draft and will be updated/improved as we get customer feedback. Also note that currently the blower and dashboard instructions show photos of a RHD installation.     

We have produced a LHD version of the kit - essentially the dash and the engine bay bulkhead are 'mirrored' so we hope the RHD instructions work ok until we get pictures of a LHD installation. If you have a LHD car and can help us with this, please contact sales@classicretrofit.com