80 series fan clutch replacement and condensor cleaning cheat sheet? (1 Viewer)

[landcruiser3DP]

i am going to crack the FSM this morning and also found this link

Cleaning AC System and Evaporator

Nope, several screws and a few clips (on the housing) that you could never access without pulling the unit. I was afraid of that. Ah well!

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any tips or gotchas on either of these procedures?
i'm going to keep looking but is there a good thread or two that walks through cleaning the evaporator without removing it?
also it looks like there is some kind of special product? i was just going to get some kind of household cleaner and clean the fins or something and put it all back together so any advice or product i should pick up would be welcome.
THANKS

 

[nukegoat]

Evaporator is not the same thing as a condenser, for starters

 

[Fj80oregon]

If your cleaning your condenser the large rectangle in the front of your truck. Than I have used a shop vac with the brush attachment and a air compressor. Then simple green and a garden hose. Just be carefull the fins bend while just looking at them! So take your time.

 

[landcruiser3DP]

Evaporator is not the same thing as a condenser, for starters

i keep doing that. i guess it is because i associate condensation with condensing. and for some reason i never figured out that always scrambles my brain since in an AC unit the evaporator condenses water on the outside.
i once had to read a psychrometric chart and that s*** will scramble you brain permanently if you only have to do it for an exam.

 

[landcruiser3DP]

If your cleaning your condenser the large rectangle in the front of your truck. Than I have used a shop vac with the brush attachment and a air compressor. Then simple green and a garden hose. Just be carefull the fins bend while just looking at them! So take your time.

yeah. looks like i am going in on the evaporator after doing my fan clutch. sorry for my mixup.
was wondering aside from the usual stuff if there is anything tricky.
i had a shop replace the TXV when i first got the rig so i am going to get all my supplies and get ready for bear if the evaporator needs cleaning i guess is what i am doing. my hope is the shop cleaned it but i think that might be a stretch.
then i guess i am getting some of this stuff and shooting it into one of the two (?) drains?
also thanks for the reminder i will probably also clean the condensor when i have the compressed air lugged out into the the driveway...?

 

[FMC80]

Deleted.

 

[CJF]

^^^
Oof.

 

[jpoole]

5+ years ago I cleaned the evaporator in my 80 with it in place. I pulled the fan/motor, vacuumed out the box and then used some appropriate foaming ac cleaner spray followed by brushing, flushing with the water hose and more shop vac work. The carpet was out at the time so the water wasn't an issue. A borescope helped me monitor my progress and get most of the debris out.

That seemed like a pretty thorough job but it was 5 or so years ago and when I pulled/replaced the evaporator last week it was pretty dirty and partially blocked. Seemed like some of the dirt was probably new, since my initial cleaning, but a lot of it probably was not. It also looks like I probably dented some fins in during that cleaning though I tried not to.

Here's what my evaporator looked like 5 years after that clean-in-place effort:

And here's what it looks like after removal/replacement:

 

[gummycarbs]

i had a shop replace the TXV when i first got the rig

I believe that means they had to remove the evaporator entirely to get at the TXV, in which case I would expect them to have at least knocked the leaves out.

Why do you think that you need to clean your evaporator?

 

[jpoole]

They definitely pulled the evaporator box and split it to get to the txv. You'd hope that they cleaned things while in there but you really never know.

Get a borescope and look around in there, it should be pretty easy to see what's going on.

And Gummy asks a good question and I'm wondering if there is a particular problem you are trying to solve or if you just want to keep things clean.

 

[landcruiser3DP]

5+ years ago I cleaned the evaporator in my 80 with it in place. I pulled the fan/motor, vacuumed out the box and then used some appropriate foaming ac cleaner spray followed by brushing, flushing with the water hose and more shop vac work. The carpet was out at the time so the water wasn't an issue. A borescope helped me monitor my progress and get most of the debris out.

That seemed like a pretty thorough job but it was 5 or so years ago and when I pulled/replaced the evaporator last week it was pretty dirty and partially blocked. Seemed like some of the dirt was probably new, since my initial cleaning, but a lot of it probably was not. It also looks like I probably dented some fins in during that cleaning though I tried not to.

Here's what my evaporator looked like 5 years after that clean-in-place effort:

View attachment 3003491

And here's what it looks like after removal/replacement:

View attachment 3003492

yeah i saw your posts on this. they were quite helpful.
so just so i follow, the TXV was replaced by a shop but i suppose it would be naive to expect they cleaned the evaporator if i didn't ask for them to do it.
anyway i will open it up to look but are you saying that at some point you would replace it anyway? or did i misunderstand?

 

[gummycarbs]

but are you saying that at some point you would replace it anyway?

Where did he indicate that?

Why don't you call the shop that replaced your TXV and ask them if they cleaned the evaporator core?

 

[landcruiser3DP]

I believe that means they had to remove the evaporator entirely to get at the TXV, in which case I would expect them to have at least knocked the leaves out.

Why do you think that you need to clean your evaporator?

ah. thanks GC.
it was not blowing cold when i got it. i ran around quite a bit and eventually a mechanic put hands on it snd said to replace the TXV. and do the drier as long as it is open. so i bought both at NAPA and ran it up to a place. it was kind of last minute as i was going out of town at the time and for whatever reason they didn't replace the drier.
since then i have found out it is not blowing cold enough (i'm in texas). recently i had someone put a manifold on it snd the numbers were high for both high and low pressure readings (i'd have to find them).
after a lot of help here and elsewhere it was decided i would do new fan clutch with higher weight silicone oil, clean the evaporator and then take it to a shop and have it vacuumed snd recharged.

 

[landcruiser3DP]

Where did he indicate that?

Why don't you call the shop that replaced your TXV and ask them if they cleaned the evaporator core?

maybe i misunderstood. he seems to indicate he put a new one in after five years. or maybe i missed it.
they did the TXV like three years ago and they are no longer around anyway.

 

[ChaseTruck]

Here's how the evaporator core from our '93 looked like in 2014. No info whether it's ever been out to that point.

'93 80 vs. '97 LX

'93 - time to tackle the A/C issue... not sure the gasket is supposed to look like this. The fluorescence photograph is from some time last year, showing the leaks... Looks like I need better snap ring pliers, and a set of 3/8" drive Allen wrenches... Rebuild kit procured from 1972FJ55, I...

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Cleaning was good for ~ 5 years. Then I installed a new evaporator core. Helped immensely, Arizona heat being more taxing on the A/C than Louisiana heat.

 

[gummycarbs]

for whatever reason they didn't replace the drier.

That's like rule #1 of air conditioning. They must have been profoundly incompetent.

 

[jpoole]

I agree that not replacing the drier would be a mistake if they opened the system. If you provided the dryer and they didn't change it that's even more an indication of incompetence on their end.

@landcruiser3DP sorry that my post was a little confusing. It's a trick keeping messages here short and also explaining enough to avoid confusion. The back story on my replacing the evaporator after 5 years is that I needed to open the system for other reasons and decided that a full system refresh (evap, expansion valve, condensor, compressor, dryer) made more sense than just replacing a few parts. My above post in this thread probably wasn't that helpful but I had the pictures handy that showed how dirty my evap was after cleaning in place (even though it was 5 years ago roughly) as compared to the new replacement so I decided to share them.

I'm sure that cleaning in place can be worthwhile both in terms of improved AC performance and likely in helping slow down corrosion of the evaporator. If possible, I'd start by pulling the blower and putting a scope on the evaporator. When I did that I could easily see how dirty things were and it helped guide where cleaned and when I stopped.

Tuning the fan clutch also really helped with the AC performance in my 80 when in traffic or at slow speeds. It also helped with engine operating temps which was great. How much this tuning helps on your rig will depend on a number of factors including how the fan clutch is performing now and how the cooling/ac system is setup. Fan shroud, foam around the radiator, cleanliness and other details also contribute to how the system works. You likely know all of that but in my opinion dialing in the fan clutch on an 80 is always a great idea.

You may have seen it but I recently shared the process that I followed to replace the major components of my 80s AC system here:

FZJ80, R134A Air Conditioning System Rebuild How To

Thanks to the contributions of many very knowledgeable ih8mud contributors I was able to refresh the AC on my 1997 FZ 80. A few of those contributors surely saved me a lot of time, $$, mistakes and reworking. @flintknapper and @alia176 stand out in my mind though I'm sure there were a number...

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You may get the most bang for the buck with your plan of cleaning, replacing the dryer and recharging the system but a full update is also doable for the DIY non-expert wrench in my experience. I would have stuck with the cleaning and piecemeal approach for at least a few more years as my AC performance was pretty good. When I ran into issues with wear on the nose of the compressor though I decided it was time to update the system and I took the plunge. Avoiding breakdowns or AC failure are very high priorities for me though as we use the 80 primarily for longer trips with our young kids.

You may have noticed this in your searching but there are a handful of folks on the forum that are great at AC troubleshooting. I'm definitely not one of them but reading their posts helped me appreciate that a full AC update and recharge is typically easy compared to troubleshooting an AC system. That's part of why I just replaced the major components, flushed the system and started over. The chances of success that way seemed greater and I didn't want to get into repeated work and troubleshooting, etc.

Good luck with it.