No AC

[Tractor Dan]

Ok. My 97 Ranger essentially will only blow hot air unless it's real early in the morning and cool outside. I have replaced the thermostat, done that with the radiator. I'm wondering if it just needs a Freeon boost or if there is something else causing it? In the winter and cooler months it will blow cold, but from about May to October it blows hot.

Dan

 

[slownis]

Your radiator and thermostat have nothing to do with cooling you. They cool the engine.

The first thing to do when diagnosing A/C is to check the pressures on the low side and high side. That will tell you if you have a leak or if its something electrical.

 

[SHAKE&BAKE]

U SHOULD HAVE A LOW PRESSURE SWITCH ON THE SIDE OF ACCUMULATER OR SOMEWHERE ANYWHO, TRY TAKING THE WIRE HARNESS OFF {2 WIRES} AND JUMP THEM WITH WIRE. IF THE A/C CLUTCH KICKS IN AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS RUNNING ITS LOW ON FREONNICE BELT BUCKLE

 

[Tractor Dan]

Gonna revive this thread. Only took me 3 years to get around to getting it looked at. Mainly because i'm getting to the point with my meds that my body can't handle the heat like it used to.

So here is what i currently know is wrong with it. Took it to a shop and got it tested. They said i have a leak at the O ring of the line going into the accumulator. They also said before they can find any other leaks they would have to fix this leak. Now they wanted over $200 to fix this. But the one guy knows me pretty well and we have bought countless tires and stuff there so he told me i could handle doing the O ring on my own. Which i knew i could. However i go to autozone and they are telling me to replace the accumulator as well.

So here is what i need to know.
If i replace the O ring, do i have to replace the accumulator?
If the accumulator needs replaced should i just let the shop do it? The guy at autozone said if i replaced the accumulator by the time i got it to the shop it would basically be filled with the amount of water it can hold. He said the only way i could do it myself is if i got a vaccum pump to pull it down to the 29 inches of mercury.

Also i'm not sure of the age of the current accumulator. We will say it's atleast 4 years old because that's how long i have had the truck and i have never put one on. Though i'm guessing it's much older then that because the truck never really blew that cold when i got it. Any help is appreciated. Automotive AC repair is all new ground to me. I know i'm capable with some help when i'm not sure on things.

 

[wr250rdr]

One thing that might help you is haynes makes an ac manual. Because the concept and execution in all vehicles is the same it might help you to pick one up and read it and see what that tells you. My understanding with ac is that when there is a leak in the system that had been left untreated it can tank the whole system with internal rust but I have no idea how accurate that is.

 

[Tractor Dan]

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to see if my local library has that manual. Thankfully they have the haynes manual for my truck. So rather then buy one i just go rent it from there. Or i go look up the job in it, and copy the instructions on the machine. A lot of the time i mainly just go for the pictures so i get a good idea of what things are supposed to look like so i know everything goes back where it needs to go.

 

[adsm08]

At this point in the game, I would replace the accumulator. It is not hard to do. If you put it in, close up the system right away, and drive it down to the shop to get it vacced out right away you will be fine.

Also, I've seen some fairly new info that says you can actually get the moisture back out of the drier bag if you get it up close to 200* while sucking vacuum on the system. We have tried this where I work and had some success with it. Basically you pull a 2 hour vacuum on it and leave the engine run for the first hour.

 

[Tractor Dan]

Only concern i have about doing it is the shop is about 9 miles away from where i live. Would it be fine to drive it that far? Because the guy at autozone tried to tell me it wouldn't. I didn't want to argue but i thought to myself if i swap the parts out quick and get the system sealed as quick as possible i should be fine as long as i leave the heating/cooling system shut off. Or am i wrong in my thinking? I have decided though whenever this gets done i'll probably just replace the accumulator i mean at $25 i would rather have the piece of mind that it's replaced. I'm going to try to get to the library this week and do some reading on car ac/heating just so i have a better understanding of it.

 

[wr250rdr]

Well from what I do know. Leaving the system Unpressurized and driving on it will not cause damage. I did Thai for 6 months before I was finally driven by heat to get it recharged. As long as you don't turn on the ac you will be fine. You can use the blower just don't click on the compressor and you will be fine