Done my first a/c job and so far its working good!!!!

[69wannabe]

I have always hated working or even messing with a/c systems!!! Recently I had to put a heater core in my daughters 2000 jeep grand cherokee and had to take the heater box out and disconnect the a/c lines at the evaporator core to get the heater core changed out. Actually had to pull the whole dash out do do the job YUKK!! So I replaced the evaporator core while I was in there and the dryer too since it was kinda rusty too. Got it back together and pulled a vacuum on the system and charged it back up and that was a few weeks back and so far its still working good so my confidence was up a little bit about the a/c system I have always been scared of!!! My dads old 85 ford dually hasn't had the a/c working in 15 years and I decided what the heck i'm gonna see if I can fix it too. Picked up a new dryer and orfice tube and ordered a new compressor and started into it. Well yanked the dryer off and tried to pull the orfice tube out but it was stuck and wouldn't come out so I decided to try and drill it out and that ended up with bad results so it got a new evaporator core as well. It wasn't a bad job to change any of the components and flushed out the condensor while it was open and put new o-rings on all the lines I had to take loose and put the new compressor on and 6 oz of pag oil in it and 2 oz in the dryer and turned the compressor by hand to circulate the oil into the system and pulled a vacuum on the system and let it hold on the gauges for an hour or so and when I got back to it it was holding good vacuum so put 3 cans in it and ran it this weekend some and it works pretty good for a 30 year old truck!!!! I put the gauges back on it today and it is still good where it was saturday so i'm hoping it will stay that way!!! Getting a little better with this a/c stuff!!! Got to figure out whats wrong with my jeep's a/c next, maybe just a stopped up orfice or dryer I hope....

[rt green]

good job.  that's excellent

[charge69]

This is a great story!  I have always been mystified by the workings of an air conditioning system on a car and still will not work on one without help, either a friend or take it to a professional.  Sounds like you were successful on both vehicles.

By the way, did you use R134 or the old R12 in the system of the older truck? My old azz doesn't remember the time they switched over but think it was around 15 years ago or so. None of my cars take it but I still have a couple of cans of R12 in the garage.

Tackling the dash and heater box on the Cherokee also sounds like a nightmare to me. I salute you for doing all this yourself.  I am sure you saved yourself a lot of money by doing it yourself!

[green69rt]

Just a few things on the next time anyone does a job.  I may be too cautious but I like to run the vacuum pump for 4- 6 hours (just to get that last molecule of water out of the system.)  Only open up the parts, such as evap, dryer, etc at the very last minute.   A lot of parts are filled with inert gas to keep water out. 

Sounds like you are on the road to becoming AC independent, always a good thing.  It's really not that hard is it?  Did you have a coach??

[Pete in NH]

Some great advise from green69rt!

Keep those receiver/driers sealed to the very last minute and they should be the last piece you put in the system so the system will be all sealed up.

I started doing my own A/C over thirty years ago. The small vacuum pump and gauge set I bought back then have paid for themselves many, many times over. As green69rt says, I can let the vacuum pump run as long as I want. I know exactly what oil and how much I used and I can take my time and do the job carefully with no corners cut.

It's almost impossible to find a shop today that knows anything about our old Mopar RV-2 compressor systems. I think these systems are among the best ever installed in a car. About the only thing that will kill an RV-2 is no oil.

[69wannabe]

This is a great story!  I have always been mystified by the workings of an air conditioning system on a car and still will not work on one without help, either a friend or take it to a professional.  Sounds like you were successful on both vehicles.

By the way, did you use R134 or the old R12 in the system of the older truck? My old azz doesn't remember the time they switched over but think it was around 15 years ago or so. None of my cars take it but I still have a couple of cans of R12 in the garage.

Tackling the dash and heater box on the Cherokee also sounds like a nightmare to me. I salute you for doing all this yourself.  I am sure you saved yourself a lot of money by doing it yourself!

I just went with the R134 conversion on the old truck, since the R134 is easy to attain. I haven't seen any R12 for years. The heater core job on the grand cherokee was interesting for sure and it went well actually except the heater core from the parts store wound up being bad and leaked worse than the original one so I had to do the job twice. Got a heater core from the dealer the second time and it has been good since. 

[69wannabe]

Just a few things on the next time anyone does a job.  I may be too cautious but I like to run the vacuum pump for 4- 6 hours (just to get that last molecule of water out of the system.)  Only open up the parts, such as evap, dryer, etc at the very last minute.   A lot of parts are filled with inert gas to keep water out. 

Sounds like you are on the road to becoming AC independent, always a good thing.  It's really not that hard is it?  Did you have a coach??

I have an air operated vacuum pump and my compressor isn't the greatest so I was having to run it a bit then shut it off and then run it some more. I may invest in me an electric vacuum pump so I can just plug it in and let it run awhile. I have a couple of friends that are mechanic's and if I have any questions I call and see what their suggestion is but I pretty much done this one on my own... 

[Cooter]

 

Now, do that about four times every two weeks, listen to customer bitch about how it used to blow out the other vent before you worked on it (when the whole time it's had a code in the body control module for years), have to pull it back down to fix a problem you didn't cause. But kudos for gettin it done!

[Silver R/T]

I try to do A/C work myself as well. I bought vacuum pump, manifold from HF and bought a dozen cans of R134a from ebay and some accessories, UV light, temp gauge, etc.

[69wannabe]

Now, do that about four times every two weeks, listen to customer bitch about how it used to blow out the other vent before you worked on it (when the whole time it's had a code in the body control module for years), have to pull it back down to fix a problem you didn't cause. But kudos for gettin it done!

I hear you loud and clear Cooter!!! I used to work for a guy 16 years ago and that is one reason I never had any interest in doing any a/c work for anyone, even my own vehicles. I would watch him bust his rear working on a/c for his customers and it worked really good just to see them come back the next day and say it isn't working as good as it used to!! I am just trying to learn my way around on this stuff just so I won't have to pay someone else to do it for me.