A/C Exploded!

[Doofy]

Great advise Denisefwd93. I am new to a.c. maintenance. The wife's Jeep is the first vehicle with air conditioning since my '63 T-Bird. I read everything I could find and watched all the YouTube videos on the subject and completed all the repairs and re-charge successfully. No fear of a.c. now but I know I will never have your knowledge and understanding of these systems. Appreciate your input.

 

[Denisefwd93]

Great advise Denisefwd93. I am new to a.c. maintenance. The wife's Jeep is the first vehicle with air conditioning since my '63 T-Bird. I read everything I could find and watched all the YouTube videos on the subject and completed all the repairs and re-charge successfully. No fear of a.c. now but I know I will never have your knowledge and understanding of these systems. Appreciate your input.

oh. your welcome

I'm not a auto ac expert by any means but many of the same principles apply.

 

[ratdude747]

If you have a a.c. manifold gauge set you should be able to see a super high pressure on the high side. To much oil could harm the compressor or prevent proper a.c. cooling.



This is a big misconception about the high side. and the person charging more more into the lo side can easily put in 3-4 times the actual charge needed. A high side blockage will not usually show a high gauge pressure because the gas will condense into liquid and give up heat. unlike when a fan is not moving the air across the condenser. Finally when it's all liquid back to the comp and it becomes hydraulic pressure. it's usually too late and the comp valves get damage, joints can blow apart etc.


all this is why I always say "know what you have or don't have before you add or think you need more." (oil or refrigerant)

I started at a vacuumed out system, and put in 24oz of refrigerant (minus the losses from purging the service line when starting a fresh can). The spec is 22oz and I figured 2oz wouldn't hurt it.

 

[Doofy]

Is the system functioning now? Compressor still chattering?

 

[ratdude747]

Is the system functioning now? Compressor still chattering?

Not loudly. AC ice cold though. Hope it lasts...

 

[Doofy]

Great!

 

[Denisefwd93]

Not loudly. AC ice cold though. Hope it lasts...

they all sound like a little washing machine to me! think they are called a "wobble plate" compressor

Glad you have it working!

 

[ratdude747]

they all sound like a little washing machine to me! think they are called a "wobble plate" compressor

Glad you have it working!

You mean a swashplate?

Yeah. IDK as I bought my best friend's old car (1994 Ford tempo) and have been busy with that since my last post.

 

[ratdude747]

Updates:

1. No longer a urgent thread, could a mod move this?

2. Still leaking... but I think it's the evaporator. As soon as I turned on the A/C I smelled refrigerant, but I assumed that was residual from the explosion. Obviously that's not the case (duh), so the saga continues?

 

[ratdude747]

Updates:

1. No longer a urgent thread, could a mod move this?

2. Still leaking... but I think it's the evaporator. As soon as I turned on the A/C I smelled refrigerant, but I assumed that was residual from the explosion. Obviously that's not the case (duh), so the saga continues?

Update:

Swapped the evaporator and liquid line today. Made a nasty discovery:

That's the O ring from the prior posts. Still had the wrong one...

The new evaporator came with new O-rings, so I was for sure able to get the right O-ring. This time the fit was a lot better.

I replaced the variable orifice tube with another variable orifice tube, as the input screen had some junk. A little bit of metal (not unlike what I saw from the bad fitting connection awhile back) and some fiberous crap. Nothing massive but $20 is cheap insurance.

I also bought a new vacuum pump. It's a dual stage 3CFM one from Harbor Freight, pulls a much better vacuum than the $20 venturri one I was using. I could actually see water vapor being pulled out. Got it down to 30 inHG and let it sit for 30 mins... My needle didn't move a hair. Charged it up... so far, so good. Not calling it "fixed" as it hasn't been long enough to say.

On the plus side I haven't been hearing much compressor noise (the bad kind, that is)... so that seems to be a non-issue.

 

[Doofy]

Cross your toes and hope for the best. Good Score on the vacuum pump too. I'm still miffed because the only pump I could get anyone to ship was the air operated one. It would only pull down to about 25"HG. Got the job done though.

 

[ratdude747]

Cross your toes and hope for the best. Good Score on the vacuum pump too. I'm still miffed because the only pump I could get anyone to ship was the air operated one. It would only pull down to about 25"HG. Got the job done though.

IDK about Alaska but I do know Harbor Freight does ship to home in addtion to brick and mortar. Just skip the $99 2.5CFM single stage one, I read that they're no better than the air powered ones. $159 hurt a bit but did the job very well. What's nice about the electric ones is you can see the water vapor being pulled out... that way you know when you've pulled the moisture out (or enough of it, I ran it about 10 minutes).

Edit- Yes, Harbor Freight does ship to Alaska: http://www.harborfreight.com/customer-service-shipping-delivery.html#3

 

[Doofy]

Great info. Yep, saw it on harbor freight : $25-50 shipping on that pump. Amazon's Free shipping is a good thing if they will ship. You never know what they will ship and what they won't until you go to check out. Pain in the arse!

At any rate...hope your a.c. repair holds.

 

[ratdude747]

ANother update: the noise is back... but it's the harmonic balancer, not the compressor. I should have known better, my buddy's old 1994 Tempo (now my wife's tempo) has the same problem and the same noise.

 

[ratdude747]

Seems like I still have some sort of a leak... as it's only dropping 20 degrees today. Normally it was dropping 30 like it is supposed to.

Same a before. 2 days of cold air, 2 days of cool air, then no AC at all.

Since it held static vacuum, I'm suspecting a compressor shaft seal failure. I'll pull the compressor clutch and see if I can spot any dye or sniff any leaks. This damn leak is so elusive... it makes my sniffer seem like a dowsing rod (for all I know it is) and my dye seem invisible to the UV light. Either that or the condenser?