Since my compressor clutch is shot, I decided to get a new compressor, orifice tube and dryer. The AC Delco shop I went to took the numbers right off the Harrison compressor on the car now. The number is 1131634. The guy at the store said that the number cross references to a new AC Delco compressor with part number 15-20231. He also said that another compressor that he had in stock was also listed as the correct compressor with number 15-20206.

Other than the look, what is the difference in these two compressors? I went to rockauto.com to get pictures of the compressor and see that 15-20231 visually resembles my factory compressor better than the 15-20206. The main area being where the V-belt resides. Below are the pics. I bought the 15-20206 compressor before looking them up. I would prefer to keep things original looking under the hood, but I want the better compressor for this application. Thanks for any feedback.

Original replacement - 15-20231


Replacement option - 15-20206

 

I don't see anything different in the pictures, other than they were taken in different positions.

 

Look at the position of the V-belt groove. The factory one and the top one here both have a ridge or a lip to hold the belt in. It appears like its a separate piece in the picture. The bottom picture has the V-belt assembly at the same height as the outer housing and is more flush. Again, not sure if it's cosmetic or if there is actually a difference in the physical position of the belt, etc. If it's actually a belt position issue, obviously the difference would be made up in the mounting adjustment. My question really is to find out if there is anything different between the two internally. Why would GM have so many options to fill the same application? I could see there being different ones over the years, but to say that both of these work identically and not discontinue one of the two tells me that there might be some other difference in them. I don't know AC, so I don't understand the descriptions that were provided for these.

 

I have noticed the"high performance"v-belt engines,
LU5,L69,LB9 ETC. have a deep groove A/C pulleys
in order to reduce the chance of a belt being thrown
at high RPM.'82-early85 versions with v-type alternator
belt also have a deep groove alternator pulley on the
HP engines-LG4s have standard pulleys.

 

http://www.acdelco.com/pdf/appcat_bu...ompressors.pdf

Only difference I can see is the terminal location.