How to save a bundle on your next AC compressor purchase:

If your AC compressor is of the SAE standard type with the 8 mounting lugs, you will have a chance to save a bundle if you have the time. I see list prices on the internet for around $250 to $450 for these things, and by waiting a while, and perhaps due to the joy of a faltering economy, I was able to buy a new one for $45 on Ebay.

The keys to making this happen are several:
- No matter the name of the mfr, the true mfr seems to be Japanese
- The vendor Four Seasons has a great cross reference guide to the mfr part numbers on their website, but it is not accessible via google searches of the Internet. You have to copy that to your PC and look at it. It is over 100 MB in file size. Go to www.4s.com and look under "PDF Catalogs" and save the file to your PC. The direct link is http://www.4s.com/fourseasons/...uty_FS_watermark.pdf
- good references are found at http://www.coldairfast.com/PDFs/compseltec.pdf and
http://www.meicorporation.com/pdfs/Seltec09.pdf
- Familiarize yourself with the compressor, such as by looking at the Sanden and Seltec files. The compressor will vary, such as whether the thing has 1 or 2 V belt grooves, whether it is meant for a variant of a serpentine belt, whether it is meant for 12V or 24V clutch operation, the type of the electrical connector, the diameter of the pulley, and also with what type of manifold shape and hose connectors are on the unit.
- Make up a good search on Ebay, I used "compressor (sanden,seltec,"tm15-hd","p30","p series",454,7.4,7.4l)". This wasn't good enough for me though, I did see though, that an Ebay vendor did have a P30 compressor for the early 1990s when some of these came with this instead of the Delco compressor. I have a 1986 454 P30 chassis. This vendor had hundreds of compressors of various types, and I found "89-95 Ford F450 Truck Taurus Thunderbird AC Compressor". I cross referenced the part numbers, and bingo!

See the pictures.


I also have a picture of the bracket.


Good Luck!
Matt