It was tough, but I did get my tranny pressure solenoid replaced, BUT......

[UKcat]

This makes no sense to me at all. I had a heck of a time being able to get to the side panel of the tranny. Finally ended up dropping the entire cradle; engine included; no problem replacing the parts; got everything back up in place; drove the car; the tranny shifts great; car runs well. before I started the job; I had put down the front windows; turned the car off and disconnected the battery cable. As I was test-driving the car, I noticed that the a.c. was not putting out cold air; the air coming out of the vents was actually warm, like maybe the heater was working instead of the a.c.. I had driven about 3 miles and decided to put the front windows up. Neither window would go up!!! I drove to the house; pushed the buttons to put the rear windows down; they went down, but would not come back up either!!!

Now, I have all four windows down and an a.c. that blows hot air. Did a gremlin crawl in my car or what??? I cannot find any blown fuses; could be relays; I don't know. I checked the diagnostic codes and got nothing.

PLEASE HELP!!!! Obviously, I have done something wrong, but what?????

[kev2]

hope this helps.....

GTO's a trip into the way back machine ....give me the details...

va104033.pdf

[UKcat]

hope this helps.....

GTO's a trip into the way back machine ....give me the details...

1968, 400, 360 h.p.; 4 speed; numbers matching; only thing I got that runs and drives real WELL right now!!!

[UKcat]

O.K., why won't anybody give me any advice??? I thought this forum was to help people with caddy problems; what gives??? It seems that many posters who were on here previously are not here anymore. Can't somebody help me???

[Ranger]

I don't know what to tell you other than go over all the things that you disconnected and double check them. The plug on the compressor clutch for starters. As far as the windows go, it would have to be a body harness plug.

[UKcat]

Thank you, Ranger, for at least a reply! The compresssor is running; the air coming out of the vents is warm, it seems that the system thinks it is cold and is putting out warm air instead of cool. Makes no sense to me.

We have been working on the window problem this morning and we think we did find the answer to it. The orange wire that goes to the driver side window is either broken right at the switch, or the plug that it goes into is loose. It all has power, but that wire is causing a problem. At least we were able to wiggle it enough that it makes contact and we were able to get all the windows back up anyway!!!

Now, we are going to look for loose connections or something else phantom-like to explain the air conditioner.

Maybe we will get lucky again!

[Texas Jim]

Now, we are going to look for loose connections or something else phantom-like to explain the air conditioner.

Maybe we will get lucky again!

Since you dropped the cradle... Could the pressure switch connector on the AC line at the dryer at the forewall have come partially unplugged? That will keep the compressor from actually kicking in like it should. Also could an AC line have partially came loose and freon escaped, thus preventing the compressor from kicking in due to low pressure?

I am sure you have already checked ... but the wires at the compressor itself, may have a problem.

[UKcat]

Well, the compressor was running yesterday evening when we were doing some checking; today it is not. We cannot find any reason for it, so we are off to Walmart to get from freon, just in case that is it. We do not see any place where freon appears to have gotten out. In the past, when an older car leaked the freon out, there would be an oily, greasy place; I don't see anything; does the newer type still do that or not???

[UKcat]

O.K., we got two 14 oz. cans of freon and put in the system; air conditioner is cooling like a new one; problem solved; except, obviously our freon leaked out somewhere, and we still don't know where. We found nothing broken; no oily places on any hoses or connections; so I don't know what happened, but at least it is cooling, for now.

[Texas Jim]

Glad you got the problem solved. It is not late enough in the year to do without AC.

[UKcat]

No, it is not; it was 84 degrees here this afternoon; still a little warm to be riding around with no air. Yesterday afternoon we had no air and all 4 windows down, not by our choosing; so we are doing much better today!

[BodybyFisher]

O.K., why won't anybody give me any advice??? I thought this forum was to help people with caddy problems; what gives??? It seems that many posters who were on here previously are not here anymore. Can't somebody help me???

What 14 hours and no one helped yet? Bruce, you need to drop the price of admission, the board is slipping

[Bruce Nunnally]

I was going to guess a common ground problem, but glad the problem was found. The factory shop manual is great for questions like this -- "I touched X and Y, Z, and AA stopped working!" because one can use the electrical schematics to track down which common circuit they share and diagnose that way. This sounds as if it actually was a couple of different problems that showed up at the same time, which happens.

The important thing about diagnostics is to take things step by step, investigate, and eliminate.

[UKcat]

I assume the problem with the wire at the window switch was coincidental; the a.c. freon, I assume I caused when I dropped the cradle and lowered the engine, but I don't know. I haven't actually found anything to know what happened, but as long as it works, I guess it dosen't matter!

The easiest part of the whole job was replacing the solenoids, once I got to them. Prior to that, it is a P.I.T.A.!!!

[Texas Jim]

No, it is not; it was 84 degrees here this afternoon; still a little warm to be riding around with no air. Yesterday afternoon we had no air and all 4 windows down, not by our choosing; so we are doing much better today!

Don't know where you are located. I am in the Ft. Worth area of Texas. It was in the low 90's here today.

[UKcat]

We are in Bardstown, Kentucky; about 40 miles south of Louisville (KY derby city). It is forecast to be in the middle 80's all week; suits me just fine; I hate cold weather and am not ready for it yet! I hope I need the a.c. a long while yet!!!

[WarrenJ]

UKcat,

In spite of your low post count (or maybe because of it), I hereby *officially* nominate you for caddyinfo.com Hall of Fame status.

A job well done in the end.

Bruce, please take note.

Regards,

Warren

[rmac-etc]

So you dropped the whole engine cradle etc and got to the side panels, like it was just a little extra something you had to do that day??

Scotty, beam me UP!

btw, would love to see the gto with it's hood closed. And maybe another one with the taillights streaking off into the distance .... ok, just the first is ok ...

[BodybyFisher]

So you dropped the whole engine cradle etc and got to the side panels, like it was just a little extra something you had to do that day??

Scotty, beam me UP!

btw, would love to see the gto with it's hood closed. And maybe another one with the taillights streaking off into the distance .... ok, just the first is ok ...

That is quite amazing to do that so quickly given that the main conduit needs to be removed from the engine to lower the carriage. When my AC went out out immediately after I drop tilted my carriage I assumed that I had disturbed an o-ring on the rear of the compressor or a line but it was a bad actuator.

[UKcat]

So you dropped the whole engine cradle etc and got to the side panels, like it was just a little extra something you had to do that day??

Scotty, beam me UP!

btw, would love to see the gto with it's hood closed. And maybe another one with the taillights streaking off into the distance .... ok, just the first is ok ...

Just to clarify things a little; this is a two person poster. Hubby does most of the work; I do most of the posting; some of the stuff, he tells me what to say; some of it I don't express exactly the way it should be, obviously.

He does body work for a living; mostly rebuilding wrecks to re-sell and it involves a lot of changing over front ends, frames, etc., so he was familiar with that type of stuff. Once he got to the tranny part, he didn't know much about it, but with the pictures and info. that we received on here, it went pretty smoothly. Total work time on the mechanical stuff from start to finish was about six hours. Trying to figure out the glitches after he got the car back together was harder than the mechanical stuff. We still can't find where the freon escaped, but for now, it still works.

Thanks for all of everybody's help with this matter. Hopefully, we won't have anymore troubles for a while, but if we do, I know where to go for help!

p.s. I will look on my digital pictures to see if I have any with the GTO hood down. Most of the pics that I have were taken at local shows and the hood is always up.

[BodybyFisher]

Did he remove the AC compressor when he dropped the carriage? If not its possible that the compressor connection was disturbed. When you have your AC charged have them inject dye and with the proper equipment you will be able to see where the leak is coming from. Mike

[UKcat]

No, he did not. It is possible that is where the leak is; nothing else shows any signs of it. After he put the walmart freon in and it immediately began to cool, we knew we had to have a leak somewhere. He wants to take it back over to the garage where he will be able to get under it better and look more closely at the connections. We were doing the "search and discover" work yesterday at the house!

Thanks for your help. Your article and pictures and advice from a local tranny man is what made us decide to tackle it ourselves instead of taking back it back to the dealer that did the head gasket repair. We were not very happy with the quality of work that they did (it's a long, long story) and did not really want to go through that again. Considering that they wanted 1600.00 to do this job and it only ended up costing about 250.00, not counting their ridiculous charge for getting the diagnostic code we already had, I would say that we came out pretty well.

[BodybyFisher]

No, he did not. It is possible that is where the leak is; nothing else shows any signs of it. After he put the walmart freon in and it immediately began to cool, we knew we had to have a leak somewhere. He wants to take it back over to the garage where he will be able to get under it better and look more closely at the connections. We were doing the "search and discover" work yesterday at the house!

Thanks for your help. Your article and pictures and advice from a local tranny man is what made us decide to tackle it ourselves instead of taking back it back to the dealer that did the head gasket repair. We were not very happy with the quality of work that they did (it's a long, long story) and did not really want to go through that again. Considering that they wanted 1600.00 to do this job and it only ended up costing about 250.00, not counting their ridiculous charge for getting the diagnostic code we already had, I would say that we came out pretty well.

Well my hat is off to you as that was a very difficult job for me. If your husband dropped the carriage without removing the AC compressor, I would look at those pipes and the connection at the end of the the compressor, there are two o-rings there.

Now that I see you followed my thread, did he TILT the carriage like me or drop it straight down?

[UKcat]

I am not real sure; I think he tried tilting it first; someone indicated that he would only have to take one end loose to reach the side panel, but it did not work. I know he took the whole thing loose; I don't know if he lowered the whole thing or not. Again, I am not real sure; I was not there Saturday morning, but I think that is what he said.

He said he wonders if the compressor was resting against something and may have pulled a line or fitting loose. He says he really don't think that is what happened, but it is possible.

I just came back to my office from lunch and I can already tell that the air conditioning is not as cool as it was yesterday evening, so our freon must be escaping again somewhere. Hopefully, we can get it back over to his shop and raise it up and get a better look at the underside. I bet we find our leak there.

[BodybyFisher]

I tilted mine down on the drivers side, and just loosened the 3 passenger side bolts, dropping both sides without removing the AC compressor and setting it aside probably put stress on the lines and block connection at the rear of the compressor. If you charge it again make sure you put dye in and you can look with a black light to see where the leak is coming from.