SPAL Blower for Kuhlmeister A/C Unit

[George Des]

The attached shows the SPAL Blower unit on the evaporator box of the Kuhlmeister A/C set up. Slight mod needed to be made to the condensation tube, but otherwise was a direct screw on fit. The unit is three speed with plastic housing and fins. Much quieter and larger ait volume output than the stock metal finned units. Has tested out really well, but will need to go back in and replace the stock switch so that I can take advantage of the 3-speeds--olny running on full blast right now and it will freeze you out of the cokpit if left running. A cheap improvement at $127.50. Thanks to both Tom's (Boise and Alexandria,Va) and Gernold for leading me on to this!

George Des

Download Attachment: spal001.JPG
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Download Attachment: spal002.JPG
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[ranchomerced]

Here is an experimental almost hidden A/C evap unit we have designed for a 69 280SL. It uses the defrost vent to turn on and the regular stock fan from the heater to force air thru. Mark

[ranchomerced]

Having trouble uploading the link sorry Mark

[George Des]

Mark,

It tokk me a while to figure out that my JPEG files were too big to upload. You may need to go into the MS Paint program and shrink your files to fit like I did. Once you do this, they load pretty quickly. Would really like to see how you did this A/C mod.

George Des

[Tom]

Mark,

The Mechatronik car has a similar set-up with the A/C not showing and activated by the defrost switch.  I drove the Mechatronik w113 and activated the a/c and it works wonderfully.  If you have designed such a system for the w113 and can reproduce the unit, I think you would find a good market for this (depending on cost).

Best,

Tom

1971 280sl Tunis Beige Metallic (restored & enhanced)
1971 280sl Tobacco Brown (low mileage stock)
1970 280sl Deep Red (Project Car)

[TR]

George -- Thank you kindly for the acknowledgement.  However, the kudos go to my friend, Jim W., who located the SPAL alternative for the A/C.  Jim then let Gernold know about it.  I'm very pleased this is working for you.

As you know, my personal opinion is that we should not have to compromise our creature comforts in these fine cars.  And as mentioned recently, we've since found another SPAL unit that delivers even a bit more CFM.  We're going to get one of those and experiment with it.  But in addition to the considerably improved volume now coming out of the A/C we also did quite a lot to improve cold air distribution...including to both foot wells, good delivery to the driver's side, as well as chilly delivery thru the air vents on each side of the dash.  This modified Frigiking now delivers A/C on a par with a new M-B, or so says my wife, who is a pretty tough critic when it comes to such things.

We just took our first weekend trip in the 280SL in a long, long while.  The weather has cooled down a bit (now upper-80s/lower-90s), but we did some good mountain roads out of Sun Valley and up thru Idaho’s Sawtooth range.  The car performed remarkably well in all respects.  The weather is still warm enough that all those new fans inside the seats come in handy...no more sweaty/sticky back, nor backside either.  The evaporative cooling effect the active ventilation package delivers is subtle, but effective.  And the back massagers are not only relaxing/stimulating, but pure fun.

I took a few photos on this little 2-day jaunt and will post them within the next few days.  Some of the recent mods/enhancements to the car should be observable.

I hope you continue to enjoy your enhanced A/C!

Tom in Boise
'71 280SL 4-spd, signal red w/lt. tan interior, restored/enhanced