Big Blue's Transformation

[Gary Lewis]

Why not propane?

It's a great refrigerant and it's not going to disappear any time soon.

I wasn't aware that propane is making a comeback as a refrigerant. But, after a bit of reading I find it certainly is. However, mainly in stationary cooling systems, not vehicles.

But, I think I'll stay mainstream and go with R-134a. Readily available and it looks like this system has been converted to it.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I wasn't aware that propane is making a comeback as a refrigerant. But, after a bit of reading I find it certainly is. However, mainly in stationary cooling systems, not vehicles.

But, I think I'll stay mainstream and go with R-134a. Readily available and it looks like this system has been converted to it.

There's always Ammonia, but I wouldn't want to find a leak. 😱

[Gary Lewis]

There's always Ammonia, but I wouldn't want to find a leak. 😱

Growing up we had a Servel fridge and it used ammonia. A gas flame heated the ammonia and caused the circulation. It worked, but you didn't want to hold the door open very long as it was slow to recover. And it didn't make ice very fast, especially in the summer in a house w/o A/C 'cause the temp differential dropped and the process didn't work as well. But, of course, that was the time when you needed the most ice, so...

Anyway, while a modern compressor-based system wouldn't have those problems, I can't see using ammonia in a vehicle where the constant flexing makes leaks probable at some point. And accidents could release a nasty cloud.

[Gary Lewis]

Growing up we had a Servel fridge and it used ammonia. A gas flame heated the ammonia and caused the circulation. It worked, but you didn't want to hold the door open very long as it was slow to recover. And it didn't make ice very fast, especially in the summer in a house w/o A/C 'cause the temp differential dropped and the process didn't work as well. But, of course, that was the time when you needed the most ice, so...

Anyway, while a modern compressor-based system wouldn't have those problems, I can't see using ammonia in a vehicle where the constant flexing makes leaks probable at some point. And accidents could release a nasty cloud.

Made a bit more progress today. Started with cleaning out the condenser. It was initially plugged completely with junk in the ends of the inlet/outlet tubes. I cleaned them out and it it with compressed air and the air flowed - reluctantly.

So I put quite a bit of brake cleaner in it and took it outside and hit with air. Awful stuff came out! So I hit it with more cleaner and tilted the thing back and forth to ensure the liquid got to all of the tube surfaces, and then put air through it. More bad stuff but it was now flowing. So I did that over and over until the flow was easy and what came out was clean.

Sent a text to my nephew and he suggested I get some A/C flush and run through it 'cause some brake cleaner corrodes aluminum. Pretty sure O'Reilly's doesn't, but I got the flush and ran it through several times, tilting it back and forth and then blowing it out.

Since the condenser appears to be good, I used a "comb" and took out several dings in the fins. Then I started installing it. But I'd removed the sheet metal nuts to have the radiator support painted, so I rounded up the right nuts and bolts and tried to install the condenser - and ran into two problems. First, one of the sheet metal nuts broke - inside the support with the bolt stuck in it.

So I got the Dremel and couldn't quite get to it. Given that, I got the bolt cutters out. It took both arms and everything I had to cut the bolt. And when it did cut it the bolt cutters smacked me in the forehead! I originally thought it had broken my nose, but it appears the blood came from the forehead.

But, I got the bolt off and the condenser on:

However, I did discover some interference where the condenser hits the support, so I need to do some trimming. It hits where the red mark is, although it is hard to tell.

Then I turned to the evaporator and tried to flush it. But I can just barely get air through and I can't get much of the cleaner out w/o just turning it upside down. So I came to the conclusion that the expansion valve might be involved, and turned to the 1995 FSM. Here's what it says:

So, apparently it is in here? How do I get it out?

[ArdWrknTrk]

Made a bit more progress today. Started with cleaning out the condenser. It was initially plugged completely with junk in the ends of the inlet/outlet tubes. I cleaned them out and it it with compressed air and the air flowed - reluctantly.

So I put quite a bit of brake cleaner in it and took it outside and hit with air. Awful stuff came out! So I hit it with more cleaner and tilted the thing back and forth to ensure the liquid got to all of the tube surfaces, and then put air through it. More bad stuff but it was now flowing. So I did that over and over until the flow was easy and what came out was clean.

Sent a text to my nephew and he suggested I get some A/C flush and run through it 'cause some brake cleaner corrodes aluminum. Pretty sure O'Reilly's doesn't, but I got the flush and ran it through several times, tilting it back and forth and then blowing it out.

Since the condenser appears to be good, I used a "comb" and took out several dings in the fins. Then I started installing it. But I'd removed the sheet metal nuts to have the radiator support painted, so I rounded up the right nuts and bolts and tried to install the condenser - and ran into two problems. First, one of the sheet metal nuts broke - inside the support with the bolt stuck in it.

So I got the Dremel and couldn't quite get to it. Given that, I got the bolt cutters out. It took both arms and everything I had to cut the bolt. And when it did cut it the bolt cutters smacked me in the forehead! I originally thought it had broken my nose, but it appears the blood came from the forehead.

But, I got the bolt off and the condenser on:

However, I did discover some interference where the condenser hits the support, so I need to do some trimming. It hits where the red mark is, although it is hard to tell.

Then I turned to the evaporator and tried to flush it. But I can just barely get air through and I can't get much of the cleaner out w/o just turning it upside down. So I came to the conclusion that the expansion valve might be involved, and turned to the 1995 FSM. Here's what it says:

So, apparently it is in here? How do I get it out?

Sometimes -new- will cost you less than the chemicals to clean out a crappy old (whatever)

 

[Gary Lewis]

Sometimes -new- will cost you less than the chemicals to clean out a crappy old (whatever)

Yep, I agree. But there's really nothing to the evaporator or the condenser in these trucks. They are just aluminum tubes with fins welded on. So as long as they don't leak they are good.

Brandon just called and said the orifice tube is in the hard line after the hose I'm holding in the pic. And there's a tool I need to take the connector loose to get the hose off the hard line. He just sent me a link and I ordered a set for $7.99 from Amazon and they'll be here tomorrow!

He also said that his orifice removal tool doesn't always work, so I may have to use his trick of a 1/4" lag bolt. Not going to re-use the tube anyway. But hopefully it'll come out easily.

[salans7]

Sometimes -new- will cost you less than the chemicals to clean out a crappy old (whatever)

Can we get a better picture of whatever it is your holding? Because the orifice tube should be in the tube that points upwards coming from the bottom of the evaporator.

[Gary Lewis]

Can we get a better picture of whatever it is your holding? Because the orifice tube should be in the tube that points upwards coming from the bottom of the evaporator.

You are exactly right. In the very left hand side of the pic below you can see the joint that the hose makes with the hard line. Left of and above that doughnut is hose, and right/below is hard line. And that flared-out section is supposed to be where the orifice is.

And to disconnect that hose from the hard line Brandon had me order this set of tools: ABIGAIL Air Conditioning/Fuel Line Disconnect Tool Set suitble for GM Ford and Chrysler. He said he probably has at least a dozen sets of tools supposedly for those connections, and this one works far better than any of the others. And for $7.99 and delivery tomorrow how could I go wrong?

But the next issue will be removal of the orifice tube. As said, his fancy removal tool doesn't always work, but he suggested several ways to get it out.

 

[Gary Lewis]

You are exactly right. In the very left hand side of the pic below you can see the joint that the hose makes with the hard line. Left of and above that doughnut is hose, and right/below is hard line. And that flared-out section is supposed to be where the orifice is.

And to disconnect that hose from the hard line Brandon had me order this set of tools: ABIGAIL Air Conditioning/Fuel Line Disconnect Tool Set suitble for GM Ford and Chrysler. He said he probably has at least a dozen sets of tools supposedly for those connections, and this one works far better than any of the others. And for $7.99 and delivery tomorrow how could I go wrong?

But the next issue will be removal of the orifice tube. As said, his fancy removal tool doesn't always work, but he suggested several ways to get it out.

Well, Amazon didn't quite the the connector tool set here last night, but they did get it here this morning. So after church this happened:

That orifice tube is not nearly as bad as one I was shown earlier in the week, but the evaporator still needed flushed. So I gave it some brake cleaner and then air and the brake cleaner didn't come out. Sorta like there was oil in the bottom that it merged with. So I hit it again with brake cleaner and sloshed it and that time I got some out, but it was with dirty oil. We did that a few times until it seemed I was getting out what I put in and it was fairly clean.

So then I switched to the real A/C system flush and that brought out more oil. So we did that dance several times. But after texting with Brandon I just poured a slug of cleaner in and capped the evaporator. I'll let it sit overnight to see if it softens anything up.

And, by the way, the connector tool Brandon put me on to worked a treat. The green one was exactly the right size and with a bit of oil and working it back and forth it came off fairly easily. But, in case someone needs the "how to" on using those tools, here's a page from the 1995 FSM. (Do you think we need this posted some place? If so, where?)

[salans7]

Well, Amazon didn't quite the the connector tool set here last night, but they did get it here this morning. So after church this happened:

That orifice tube is not nearly as bad as one I was shown earlier in the week, but the evaporator still needed flushed. So I gave it some brake cleaner and then air and the brake cleaner didn't come out. Sorta like there was oil in the bottom that it merged with. So I hit it again with brake cleaner and sloshed it and that time I got some out, but it was with dirty oil. We did that a few times until it seemed I was getting out what I put in and it was fairly clean.

So then I switched to the real A/C system flush and that brought out more oil. So we did that dance several times. But after texting with Brandon I just poured a slug of cleaner in and capped the evaporator. I'll let it sit overnight to see if it softens anything up.

And, by the way, the connector tool Brandon put me on to worked a treat. The green one was exactly the right size and with a bit of oil and working it back and forth it came off fairly easily. But, in case someone needs the "how to" on using those tools, here's a page from the 1995 FSM. (Do you think we need this posted some place? If so, where?)

I inherited a set of those A/C line clips, but threw them out when I downsized because I didn't have a truck they could be used on.

That F450 had some gunk in the system, that's for sure.