I'm looking at stripping down the ol' 72 comet and trying to get a good idea of what is a must have under the hood and what isn't. The giant AC brick caught my eye. Is it pretty much unbolt it, lose the belt, and disconnect hoses? or am i losing a key component by doing this, or destroying a must have vacuum? i do need a heater still, but i'm not sure if the AC unit has anything to do with that. :16suspect
I can't see it all yet, but it looks like some of its plumbed into the firewall and under the dash. Is there a fan in there? i'm pretty sure if there is, it never clicks on. So i'm tempted to just let it rot in there until i find more reasons to rip up my dash.
it goes through the firewall into the heater box/blower motor. you will need the heater hoses and box if you are going to do heat. you can also swap out the A/C box for a non-A/C one.
The A/C system consists of a condenser(unit mounted in front of radiator), the compressor along with various mounting brackets and lines, two hoses that run back to the firewall, also a evaporator that's inside the HVAC plenum... Included on the A/C plenum are various vacuum solenoids plus the blower motor and heater core inside... A heater only system has just the heater core with a blower motor... That system is controlled by cables vs vacuum(there is also one cable with A/C) so the control panel and plenum are totally different...
Personally, I would leave everything as is! You may really want to use the AC before this summer is over! If the blower motor doesn't work, it is pretty easy to diagnose, and you'll need it for the heat anyway.