on a 71, where did the factory mount the compressor? kinda curious as my new ride has AC and would like to figure out if its factory or aftermarket.. have never owned a 240 with it..

Thanks

There was no factory A/C in '71.

mine has one that was installed 1 year after PO bought the Z in 71 and it is on the passenger side

Mine had A/C added at some point, though it doesn't work now.

It's in the same position as the alternator, but on the drivers side of the block.

Thats what is puzzling to me about mine.. It's on the drivers side (compressor sits horizontally). Extremely clean install for an aftermarket unit, down to the box on the passenger side, hoses, condensor, evaporator, etc..

can anyone identify the kit manufacturer based on the odd placement of the compressor?

All U.S. 240Z air conditioning systems were aftermarket. There were several companies that made a/c conversions back in the day including A.R.A., Frigette, and Factory Air Conditioning Corporation. You have a York compressor. In most cases, it was mounted vertically on the passenger side but I believe that it was Frigette that made the kit that had it mounted horizontally on the drivers side. Some kits used a more conventional Sankyo/Sanden rotary compressor mounted on either side. Factory air conditioning didn't appear on the U.S. market Z until the 74 260Z. The major difference between those early units and the factory installed units is the location of the evaporator box. The early units, like yours, have the evaporator mounted in the passenger footwell. The fan has to pull the cooled air through the system. Not nearly as efficient as the later aftermarket systems and the factory installed systems which had the evaporator in the center.

Thats what is puzzling to me about mine.. It's on the drivers side (compressor sits horizontally). Extremely clean install for an aftermarket unit, down to the box on the passenger side, hoses, condensor, evaporator, etc..

can anyone identify the kit manufacturer based on the odd placement of the compressor?

What's odd about it? Thats were all the after market kits I've seen put them, and later thats where Nissan put it too.

Thanks for the info.. It all is coming together..

Mine's in exactly the same place. I don't think it's weird at all. It's the perfect location to be driven by an accessory belt.

My first 72 had it on the passenger side and my current one it's on the driver side. Neither ones works that well.

Well, the York compressor itself doesn't work very well regardless of where it's mounted. In brand new condition, they're just not very efficient. There are kits to convert the upright type compressor to a rotary compressor but you'd still be faced with the problems inherent to the pull-through design of the system itself. The coolest I've ever been able to get one of those old systems to run was about 38 degrees at the center vent with a York and about 34 with a Sanden. That's okay if the outside temp is not much over 90 but not cold enough it the outside temp is hotter. A good system has to be capable of getting below 30 degrees at the center vent especially to cool a greenhouse like an S30. The aftermarket kits for the late 260/280 were better since they had a center mounted evaporator but from what I've determined, there isn't enough room for one of those under the dash of a 240Z.