well the summer is coming here in Tx and im trying to have the ac running again, last year the ac system was killed by some liquid getting in the compressor and then everything stopped working for a week after that week the fan blower came back to life as if nothing had happened but the ac stayed dead, although one time the ac came back for a few minutes when i was troubleshooting it, im pretty sure it has a short some where likely at the ecm, so how do i go about this? thanks in advance

 

I suppose it would depend on what vehicle, year and engine you have.

 

oh yeah forgot about that, its a 1988 trans am 5.0

 

As far as I am aware, there is no connection whatsoever between AC and the ECM, except possibly in some years, an ECM input from the AC that tells the ECM the AC is on and to open the IAC a bit accordingly.

AC is an EXTREMELY simple system. Very easy to understand, troubleshoot, and repair. The most common problems with it (besides leaks and being out of refrigerant) usually involve the crappy electrical connections involving it. For those, start here. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...wer-motor.html

 

Ok so i made sure the clutch engages by feeding it power from another source, im trying to find that connector inside the dash that would prevent any HVAC operations




Is the brown wire that im supposed to follow that one on my finger

 

Probably... if it goes up into the dash separate from the rest, then that's it.

 

oh ok well its really hard to tell they all seem to go towards the same direction

 

Well just follow it up in there... prolly wouldn't hurt to straighten all those wires out a bit, not that it'll matter to their function, but it's AHELLVALOT eeeeezier to work on something that doesn't look like steel wool or a bird's nest.

 

yeah straightened some of that mess still i could not find to any connector, its pretty tight in there, i removed the cluster and other trim but still nothing

 

It's up in there somewhere somehow... there's 2 discrete harnesses that are involved, one that's part of the dash and one that's part of the AC (so there could be different AC options that could connect to the same dash assy), and the factory plugged that wire in somewhere to feed the AC system power, and that's the connector you're looking for.

 

ok i found online a 88 camaro ac harness and i suppose that bronw wire with the white gray plug in the end is the one im supposed to look for right? its bron and its by itself

 

That's exactly it.

Note how it's all burned up and blackened and otherwise just generally sodomized. That's an indication of how pathetic that connector type is. Get rid of it, that one and the one it plugs into both, and put something properly engineered in its place.

Not sure the details in Firebirds; they're not entirely the same as Camaro; but it's GOTTA work the same. Gotta get power from somewhere somehow.

 

the harness is a little different in the TA not too much but the plugs that go into the ac control unit are a little different but with the same color wires

 

Is it a Digital dash car? The only difference between most Camaros and Firebirds in the HVAC department is the color scheme on the Firebird hvac controls is different. The push button controls in the digital dash Firebirds are likely at least somewhat different. If that's what you're working with, you may want to take a look at a proper wiring diagram.

 

yes sir it is in fact a digital dash car where could i find a diagram for the digital dash TA

 

ok so i found on ebay on sale a wiring harness from an 88 GTA digital dash and it looks like this im guessing that red wire should be it any thoughts

 

Wiring for electronic control head for GTA equipped with digital dash:

 

Ok ladies and gentlemen i found that the wiring for this TA is a bit different from the bowtie cousin and that the equivalent of the stupid connector for the ac is not in the cabin but in the engine bay, i found this red wire which seemed like it had already been tampered with before in this terrible condition that wire goes from the separete ac blower motor harness and it was connected to the main waring harness with what seemed like it might had been one of those crimp electrical connectors

 

Seems like that corroded connection is the bottleneck of power to the ac clutch

 

You can see what I mean about how much of a POS that connector is...

Replace that with something genuinely HIGH POWER, and your system should work MUCH better.

Sorry I couldn't be more detailed about the exact locations and details in the Birds, I just simply don't know them as well.