viven44 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 When you are servicing or even checking the pressure, do you have high and low side open to the gauges? Good call, I hadn’t considered that possibility. In normal use I have never seen the low side go up to 60, unless the compressor is not running and pressure is equalized. The gauges and all its valves and not very intuitive, especially the valves on the manifold gauge itself. It is easy to confuse them as the means to get the gauge to read when all those valves control is charging, and disconnect. The low side manifold value should only be open when used to charge The high slide manifold valve should only be open to recover the gases on the high side hose upon disconnecting, but very carefully ensuring things are not open to the atmosphere ever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny G Posted June 7 Share Posted June 7 A lot of companies will evac and recharge the AC for $100. If it even has refrigerant left in it. My brother in laws machine measures what comes out test the system and then you pick the amount needed and it does it all. Last AC I did was already dry. I did the replacement, pulled a vacuum to ensure it was holding then had him charge it up. Before that I in my explorer I went to a shop like Midas and they evac'd the system. I went home and changed my compressor etc. came back they serviced it, charged me nothing for the refrigerant because they put back exactly what they took Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viven44 Posted June 12 Share Posted June 12 Thanks. How much PAG46 oil did you use ? Should have used around 7-8oz. also the high side pressure seems a bit low... indicating a compressor problem.. should be north of 200 if the low side is 30-35, assuming the ambient is 80C or higher. Per documentation at https://www.garysgaragemahal.com/hvac-systems.html https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n154523/HVAC.png I have about 4-5 in it. I was looking at the Light Manual and it does indeed say 7-8—I missed it somehow. However, I have not run this a lot with the air on so I am not sure if there was any harm here. I have some PAG 46 on the way, HOWEVER, I highly doubt that will fix my leak issue. Yes? IT MAY, I suppose, calm down that rattle when the clutch engages? Appreciate the comments. FRANKLIN2 suggests I try some spray bottle soap water all around for leak spottage as well, which I may do today. I just looked at the manual for something. It is calling for 10~11oz actually for these compressors. (Tecumseh or York). I am not sure what type of compressor yours is. If the compressor is still noisy, you can consider adding one (or maybe 2) of these cans! And these are easy as you don't need to hook up the manifold gauge. Just need one of those recharge hook-up deals that only hook up on the lowside. https://www.autozone.com/cooling-heating-and-climate-control/a-c-system-oil/p/a-c-certified-pro-pag-46-oil-charge-3oz/424620_0_0?spps.s=5803&cmpid=LIA:US:EN:AD:NL:1000000:GEN:19502231967&&CATARGETID=120054150001286444&CADevice=c&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwjqWzBhAqEiwAQmtgT3-n5pBAW7P9oK8H61W0hVfDfvICZ42qe0KVk1sZ1dHlc7kuUQA2thoCF18QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanSavage Posted June 14 Author Share Posted June 14 So last night I did not sleep well. The A/c compressor set up bugged me. I could not stop thinking about it. Did not want to do lazy crap work…….. So instead of getting to the evap cannister tear and replace, I took the old brackets and fabbed them a little to brace the compressor fittings areas. Here is what I did. The driver wide is far more sturdy than pass side. But it helps. Update: After spending time on blend door repair (see other thread) Turned on truck today after 3 days….a/c is back to shutting off and on without cooling. I had two solid days of it working as expected, then the 3 days for the blend door. There has to be a leak. Also note that the sniffer does not work well. So I shall resort to dye at some point I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanSavage Posted June 17 Author Share Posted June 17 These are the days of our A/C lives…… So got the dye and a can of refrigerant today. Not even 1/3 of a can and the compressor kicked on and did not stop. Blew cold cold air the entire time. All the appropriate hose lines and accumulator immediately started sweating as soon as I put the can to fill through the manifold gauge suction side. Did a prelim check and I see no glow anywhere. Will check again at dusk/night. So obviously I am holding a charge to some extent. I have no idea what gives. The new can with the dye would be can 6, which seems like alot to me if I am not leaking. I also added an oring to the caps: checked for glow an hour later, nothing. Will check with light tonight and update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 These are the days of our A/C lives…… So got the dye and a can of refrigerant today. Not even 1/3 of a can and the compressor kicked on and did not stop. Blew cold cold air the entire time. All the appropriate hose lines and accumulator immediately started sweating as soon as I put the can to fill through the manifold gauge suction side. Did a prelim check and I see no glow anywhere. Will check again at dusk/night. So obviously I am holding a charge to some extent. I have no idea what gives. The new can with the dye would be can 6, which seems like alot to me if I am not leaking. I also added an oring to the caps: checked for glow an hour later, nothing. Will check with light tonight and update. You are making progress. The pressures are the key, but you have to get the compressor to come on to check them. Hopefully you won't have a leak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanSavage Posted June 18 Author Share Posted June 18 You are making progress. The pressures are the key, but you have to get the compressor to come on to check them. Hopefully you won't have a leak. http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/uploads/6/5/8/7/65879365/crossed-fingers-20-pixel_orig.png Found it! …or at least one, but I definitely found a problem—could not really see it until dark last night. There is a slight ever so slight leak at one of the lines made for me. I could see the oil slowly coming out, and the dye lit up that area of the line. I did not get a pic until this morning—I should have gotten a pic plast night, but anyway, here is the pic. Off to the A/C line guy today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 Found it! …or at least one, but I definitely found a problem—could not really see it until dark last night. There is a slight ever so slight leak at one of the lines made for me. I could see the oil slowly coming out, and the dye lit up that area of the line. I did not get a pic until this morning—I should have gotten a pic plast night, but anyway, here is the pic. Off to the A/C line guy today. Well done! It looks like they over crimped it and cracked the metal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viven44 Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 Found it! …or at least one, but I definitely found a problem—could not really see it until dark last night. There is a slight ever so slight leak at one of the lines made for me. I could see the oil slowly coming out, and the dye lit up that area of the line. I did not get a pic until this morning—I should have gotten a pic plast night, but anyway, here is the pic. Off to the A/C line guy today. Nice work!! I have just kept the stock hoses on just about all conversions, and they work just fine. There is some theory about the molecular size of R134a being smaller than R12, but it definitely sounds like the stock Ford hoses have sufficient margin to accommodate R134a. Vintage air also sells flexible bendable lines on all different sizes (#6 through #12, male to female, vice versa) that can help you adapt any given hose to your application. Did you pull vacuum and verify that it held for 30 mins at least ? Just for my curiosity on whether vacuum test would pick up something like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanSavage Posted June 18 Author Share Posted June 18 Nice work!! I have just kept the stock hoses on just about all conversions, and they work just fine. There is some theory about the molecular size of R134a being smaller than R12, but it definitely sounds like the stock Ford hoses have sufficient margin to accommodate R134a. Vintage air also sells flexible bendable lines on all different sizes (#6 through #12, male to female, vice versa) that can help you adapt any given hose to your application. Did you pull vacuum and verify that it held for 30 mins at least ? Just for my curiosity on whether vacuum test would pick up something like this. Got the offending hose off, and underneath it is a horror show: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts