Second opinion on my FX

[Gottolovem]

Issue#1
When i picked up my FX one of the first thing's i did was get the A/C charged after my mechanic (someone i trust completely) called me and said that the "a/c amplifier" is malfunctioning. So i went on the hunt for another A/C amplifier for an 1987 fx 16 gts. THEY ARE CLOSE TO IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND the amplifier on this car is specific and unavailable only came in the 1987-88 gts models only . I finally found a gts through the national pick&pull web sight in Portland had a guy pull it for me and it's s*** to . So my mechanic(again someone who i completely trust) has suggested that we buy pass the amplifier all together he seems to think that it was a component that was kinda the introduction to climate controls and the a/c will blow just fine without it. (the amplifier has a little control nob on it so you can choose how cold the air is coming out of the car). So my question is do you think i run the risk of frying the electrics in the car by circumventing the amp all together

Issue #2
The car has a shimmy at hwy speed that is driving me crazy locating i have changed the rims re balanced the new tires and had a wheel alignment done all the bushings appear to be solid tie rod ends and ball joints appear to be tight whats left c/v axle or wheel bearing Short of strapping myself to the bottom of the car while someone else drives it down the road i can't seem to find the bad part as Petros says i don't want to just start throwing parts at it hoping it' the one having the wheel bearings done is expensive

I have tried other forums specific to the fx (ae82) and there useless

[irowiki]

Little blue box with a dial on it that says A/C on it? I've seen that on my tercel too!

Might help to find a wiring diagram and see what it does.

[dlb]

i have no idea on the AC. for the shimmy at hwy speeds, i think you are on the right track. if you have ruled out bent wheels, out of round tires, and out of balance tires, and if there are no typical worn bearing sounds (ie growling), i would lean toward a slightly out-of-balance CV. i'm not sure how you could confirm that without simply replacing it though. the only idea i have is to get the whole car up on a hoist so all four wheels are well off the ground. get a friend to start the car and get the wheels spinning at hwy speeds. you should probably be able to see the offending wheel or axle jumping around.

not sure how feasible that idea is but it's the first thing that comes to mind.

[Gottolovem]

Little blue box with a dial on it that says A/C on it? I've seen that on my tercel too!

Might help to find a wiring diagram and see what it does.

Yes that's the box in question but the FX has a specific one

i have no idea on the AC. for the shimmy at hwy speeds, i think you are on the right track. if you have ruled out bent wheels, out of round tires, and out of balance tires, and if there are no typical worn bearing sounds (ie growling), i would lean toward a slightly out-of-balance CV. i'm not sure how you could confirm that without simply replacing it though. the only idea i have is to get the whole car up on a hoist so all four wheels are well off the ground. get a friend to start the car and get the wheels spinning at hwy speeds. you should probably be able to see the offending wheel or axle jumping around.

not sure how feasible that idea is but it's the first thing that comes to mind.

That"s a good idea my mechanic has a lift and i have seen him use his stethoscope on a car while it's rolling in gear

[irowiki]

Maybe the tercel one can be made to work with some hack and slashing?

[Petros]

I have never had to service any a/c system with a climate control, all of the older ones I serviced were just on/off and did not have a controller or "amplifier", so I do not see why it would not work without it. Nor why you could not adapt one from another model to work in your car. Likely it is identical to one used in the MR2 or other smaller Toyota, the only think unique might be the way it mounts, or perhaps the wire color coding. Both of those are easy enough to alter and make work, that is if you really one it. All of the newer cars with climate control always have that device fail first, making it impossible to use. I would rather have manual controls any day.

[teranfirbt]

The controller box is there to prevent the evaporator from icing up. Car AC systems don't just run all of the time, they cycle on and off to maintain evaporator temperature. I would bet that the box from any 80's Toyota with AC would work, you would just have to match up the wires. It's pretty likely that a Toyota from the same year would have the same wire colors and could be swapped/spliced one for one, but don't quote me on that.

I had a nasty shimmy in the Tercel at highway speed, turned out that one of the CV axle nuts had come loose (thank goodness for the sheet metal castellated piece!). Tightening it down solved the issue.

[irowiki]

What kind of shimmy?

[Gottolovem]

The steering wheel has a slight lateral wiggle In it at around 60 mph it gets worst the faster I go above 60

[irowiki]

Buck has some sort of random shimmy or vibration at speed too.

[larry mcgrath]

had a 2002 subaru, that did the lateral shimmy was abroken belt in a front tire Larry

[Petros]

check tires for bulges, also look for loose ball joints or tie rod ends. check the doughnut bushings at the sway bar ends where they meet the lower arms, if these are loose and sloppy it will cause a shimmy.