Engine Foxbody Mustang A/C Compressor Reseal - Nippon-Denso 6P148A

Reassembly time. I cleaned the internals with a clean lint-free rag and oil. You'll want to pay attention to the various surfaces the O-rings seal against and identify potential trouble areas.
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First you'll need to reassemble the pistons. You can skip this is you didn't disassemble the pistons.

Easy way to do this is to put lubricant all over the balls. Once properly lubed, they will stick to the piston socket and the guide plates pretty easily and stay in place.

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You'll want to lubricate the piston seals. as well as the bearing plates on the swash plate shaft. The next part is tricky, but you'll need to assemble all 3 pistons onto the swash plate, and then insert them down into the REAR housing half.

Once assembled like below, continue to lubricate various contact points.

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Assembly of rear valve plate.

Position the housing similar to this view. Now is a good time to add lube to that bearing, as well as inside the piston bores.
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The rear valve plate is marked with a letter "R". It consists of a thin plate, and a thicker plate with two rockers. You shouldn't have to disassemble the rockers at all. Lubricate the o ring as well as lube the thin plate and install as shown. The fingers will align with some machined pockets in the body as shown. There are two pins that you removed earlier than need to be reinstalled to align everything. Ensure no oil is in the pin bores as this will prevent the pins from fitting down into their bores all the way. Use a cloth to soak up the excess oil here.

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Thicker valve plate then installs like shown
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Install new gasket from your rebuild kit. I installed it dry here for this photo, but i rubbed lubricant on both sides of the gasket before install.

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FInally, align the rear cover and install. Tap in place with a rubber or dead blow mallet.

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Flip it over and position it with the shaft upwards to install the front valve plate, which is marked with an "F".

Use this opportunity to lubricate the shaft bearing and the piston bores
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As before, separate the valve body and position the thin plate as show, with the alignment dowel pins in place. You can see how the "fingers" on the valve plate align with machined pockets in the body.
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Finally, install the thicker valve plate with the rockers, the O-ring and the outer seal
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Now to apply the wick back into the front cover. Simple insert the wick into the metal retainer.
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Slide the circular part into the hole and belt the tab down like shown. Try not to protrude too far into the interior portion of the housing
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Next up is theshaft seal. There is a video for this in post #23. This would be the first seal version in the video.

This seems to be the area these compressors tend to leak the most from, and might be the cause of all Foxbody losing their initial charge over time. Please pay attention here and work carefully.

Lubricate the compressor shaft. Make sure you are wearing gloves here (you should have been all along). Slide the internal shaft seal down. The shaft has two flats on it that align to flats on the seal. Make sure the seal engages these. ITS VERY EASY TO THINK ITS DOWN FAR ENOUGH WHEN IT"S NOT.

Once install, apply lube to the top seal. This will seat against the other seal.

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The other seal does have an alignment feature that does mate up with the tool (OTC T81P-19623-OH).
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Lubricate the O-ring throroughly. Once enough lube is applied, you are able to press the seal into the housing by hand. No need to hammer it in place. Make sure you press the seal in evenly and ensure none of the o-ring got pinched on the side
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Install the front cover onto the compressor. You want to make sure the shaft key is not installed yet, to avoid damaging the seal as you install. Use plenty of lube
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The rebuild kit comes with new brass washers. Install them on your bolts and torque to 18-19 ft-lbs.
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Compressor is done. Manifold installation is pretty straightforward. I'll detail in later posts. I still need to install the shaft key and the compressor clutch, and am looking for a method to pressure/vacuum test the compressor before install. There is a leak test procedure outlined in the service manual, but it doesn't tell you details.

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Some closing actions.

manifolda installed, all bolts torqued to 18-19 ft-lbs.

New clutch coil, pulley and clutch disk installed. There are plenty of writeups on replacing the ac clutch. There is a c-clip that holds the coil and pulley on. You should be able to reuse your spacer for the outer disk from your old clutch. If you need this hardware, rockaito sells it as ac clutch hardware. Should be 2 c clips, a few spacers and a nut/locknut.

best way to install the shaft key is to install the clutch outer disk on the shaft. There is a slot for the shaft key. Align the key and use a punch and a dead blow to drive the key in. Make sure you go flush to the shaft lip so you can install the clutch disk shim in between the shaft and disk.

Proper clutch air gap procedure is in the service manual pdf at the beginning of this thread. Refer to it for gap setting procedure.

compressor shaft nut torque is 10-14 ft-lbs.

After torquing, you’ll want to rotate the clutch around and check the gap in 3 spots. Your smallest air gap needs to be set to 0.021-0.036” of gap at the smallest of the 3 spots you check

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I do want to perform a leak test on this first, but I need a method. I will update further if I discover a good method
 
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MT2140 contains the right gaskets for the 6P148 compressor.

The other kit contains a shaft seal, but not sure if it's the correct one. I'm still searching around for shaft seals
 
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Looks like all the parts are getting discontinued.

Here's the shaft seal that would have been normalled purchased. It says it's also compatible with the 6P127 which is listed above in that MT2069 kit. That shaft seal might work. Would need to actually try it out however.


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Looks like all the parts are getting discontinued.

Here's the shaft seal that would have been normalled purchased. It says it's also compatible with the 6P127 which is listed above in that MT2069 kit. That shaft seal might work. Would need to actually try it out however.


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Just curious, where do the rebuilders get these unavailable parts?? Anyone know?
 
Just curious, where do the rebuilders get these unavailable parts?? Anyone know?

There probably are sources. I only spent a few
Mins searching so they might not be discontinued from other sources.

The kit above is the seal (MT2140) is the rebuild kit for the compressor.

Just need to locate a shaft seal which might be in that other kit.
 
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I have been sitting on a scrapyard compressor to replace my original with a crack in the casing. You spooked me saying Century Air discontinued parts.

So I called the AC Kits. The guys checked and said 2069 contains the shaft seal for 6P148A compressor. I bought both kits and already have a tracking number. So far so good with this vendor I guess.
 
I think this is the right shaft seal as well. Says last one left


I should prob pick up a kit and squirrel it away. In the grand scheme of things, $35 plus shipping isn’t much to rebuild the compressor
First off, great write-up! I've already torn down two 6p148's and THEN I run into this thread. Anyway, looking to rebuild both to have 1 as spare for a fox I'm reviving ( or allowing for me to catastrophically mess up at least once) but I did notice that same exact ebay listing I had saved to my watchlist is now (a day later) sold out. Luckily, that shaft seal seems to be identical to this one and at least one other source already mentioned in this thread supports compatibility along with both the ebay listing and the rockauto page using the same picture (which alone isn't the most reliable). Ordered a pair of them and should be able to confirm fitment in a few days.
 
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So looks like there are still sources for these seals. Just need to search around. Of course might be a good idea to pick up a kit and squirrel it away if this is something you plan on doing down the road. Looks like the kits are $35 combine plus shipping. Compare that to $200-300+ for a reman compressor.

The area to pay the most attention to is the shaft seal. From my research on this in other forums and such where the 6P148 compressor is used, most leaks tend to be the shaft seal.

I wouldn’t be surprised if every Foxbody that ever ran low on refrigerant after the assembly line fill was due to a leaking shaft seal.
 
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