My New Air Conditioning Book is Now Available on Amazon

thehackmechanic

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Hey, fellow E9ers, my new book, "Just Needs a Recharge: The Hack Mechanic Guide to Vintage Air Conditioning" just went up for sale on Amazon. The link is here: (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0998950718/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524587969&sr=1-5). As you can see, it has my E9 on the cover, which is pretty cool :^)

Rob_Siegel_Just_Needs_a_Recharge_Front_Cover-1024.jpg

If you want to buy a personally-inscribed copy from me, you can do that at http://www.robsiegel.com/newcarstuff.htm (and, as you'll see on my website, for another $5, I'll throw in my new singer/songwriter CD :^), but I don't yet have inventory of the new books at my house, and probably won't have until the start of May. So, since driving season is already upon us and I've had people asking me when the book will be out, it's out right freaking now on Amazon; due to the wonders of Print On Demand (POD), they can get it to you in like two days. I will also have the book available at The Vintage, and at Oktoberfest where I will be giving an a/c talk (https://ofest.bmwcca.org/events/rob-siegel-air-conditioning-talk/).

In writing the book, I tried to strike a balance between providing as much BMW-specific a/c information as possible while not making it entirely a BMW-specific book. Over the years, I wrote quite a bit in Roundel Magazine as well as here on the forum about the from-scratch a/c installation I did in my E9. I did try and capture the important E9-specific things in the book. These include:

--Information about why you want to get rid of that boat anchor York compressor and its bracket, why what you want is a Sanden 508, and why the bracket issue has gotten much more complicated than it used to be. I went into most of the detail I delved into in my epic post "The Great Sanden Bracket Mystery," including the recent solutions involving the bracket for the E28 wing cell compressor, and the adapters from Will Nolan and Layne Wylie.

--Info about the largest parallel flow condenser you can fit.

--A fairly detailed case study-like discussion of the a/c retrofit I did in the E9 and the Euro 635CSi, as well as the a/c rejuvenations of the Bavaria and tii.

But in addition to the E9 and BMW-specific content, the real value of the book is that it is the only book out there specific to the a/c needs of a vintage car. It tells you everything, soup to nuts, you need to know to resurrect the a/c in a long-dead car. That includes chapters on theory, tools, refrigerants, oils, legality, fittings, the recipe for R134a conversion and why from a practical standpoint it's little different from resurrection, compressors, evaporator assemblies, expansion valves versus orifice tubes, receiver/driers versus accumulators, condensers, auxiliary fans, making hoses, flushing, pressure-testing with nitrogen, leak detection, evacuation, recharging, troubleshooting... everything.

Thanks. End of commercial. Stay cool.

Yours in totally not being an R75/2 guy...

--Rob

(PS If you like the book, please consider posting a review on Amazon. Thanks!)
 

rsporsche

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so here's an AC question for anybody that knows an answer. i get why you should buy a Sanden, but why should you choose a 508 over a 709 or vice versa? i know 5 series has 5 pistons and the 7 series has 7 pistons and therefore more output. i presume that if you live in the south you want the 7 series. the 7 series (real) sanden is made in the USofA. most of the 508's i have seen are made in China by SSB (shanghai sanden behr).
 

sfdon

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Thanks Rob!
 

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Stevehose

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I have the 709. My uneducated guess would be that the 709 cranks out more compression but requires more energy to do so. I believe the 508 is plenty for our crappy ac evap so no need to waste the hp (and idle rpm drop) on the 709. I have a solenoid to keep the idle steady but i believe the drop would be more with the 709.

so here's an AC question for anybody that knows an answer. i get why you should buy a Sanden, but why should you choose a 508 over a 709 or vice versa? i know 5 series has 5 pistons and the 7 series has 7 pistons and therefore more output. i presume that if you live in the south you want the 7 series. the 7 series (real) sanden is made in the USofA. most of the 508's i have seen are made in China by SSB (shanghai sanden behr).
 

thehackmechanic

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I did not discuss this issue in the book, and I probably should have; I basically just took the 508 as a given for many applications. But I agree with the basic assessment above.
 

Mal CSL 3.0

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Hi Rob,

Just finished Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic and absolutely loved it! Planning to now buy Ran When Parked.

Sadly my old BMW and Alfa don’t have aircon though, so will have to wait for whatever comes next after this latest book.
 

mulberryworks

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I'm going to buy an autographed copy straight from Rob when he gets them as he makes a bit more that way, but that will have to wait till I'm 'cough cough' back from Germany and the E9 club annual meeting in Potsdam in a few weeks. They are expecting over 40 coupes so I'm quite excited at the prospect.
I'll count the number that have AC installed. I'll bet it isn't very many.
 

thehackmechanic

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