My ass-kicking days are over, and I thought I'd share my A/C experience with you guys as an FYI.
I had the AC fixed and going great, but went wheeling a little bit and it caused one of the hoses going into the firewall to loosen up. Lesson #1, use Loc-tite on all connections that could see movement.
Lesson #2 comes in the form of evacuation. Though you can buy the vac pump and manifold pretty cheaply, it's better to go to someone and have it done professionaly. With the leak, I refilled it once to make sure it wasn't a heat related pressure change, when it leaked again I added dye and more oil, then another can of freon/oil once I got the leak fixed. Now the system has too much oil in it and doesn't cool well at all. I tried evacuating it last night with my setup, but couldn't get all of the oil out. Replaced the freon and it cools even less...Good thing it'll be 100 degrees f. Thursday!
Anyway, if I were to do it all over again, I'd have someone diagnose system faults, fix it myself, use loc-tite on the threads for the hoses on the firewall (and maybe the dryer), have it professionaly evacuated, fill it with one of the retro kits that has the oil and freon mixed already (and I'd buy one of the $20 low-end pressure guages from O'Reilly) and fill it myself.
I've got a call into my guy up the street, and I'm going to see what it will cost to have the system re-evacuated and the crap recovered, then maybe refilled. I may refill it myself, but I dunno. If I have him do it, maybe he'll cut me some slack next month when I have to have my junk inspected .
So there it is, my A/C gift to the board, on the heals of all my idiot bragging.
I had the AC fixed and going great, but went wheeling a little bit and it caused one of the hoses going into the firewall to loosen up. Lesson #1, use Loc-tite on all connections that could see movement.
Lesson #2 comes in the form of evacuation. Though you can buy the vac pump and manifold pretty cheaply, it's better to go to someone and have it done professionaly. With the leak, I refilled it once to make sure it wasn't a heat related pressure change, when it leaked again I added dye and more oil, then another can of freon/oil once I got the leak fixed. Now the system has too much oil in it and doesn't cool well at all. I tried evacuating it last night with my setup, but couldn't get all of the oil out. Replaced the freon and it cools even less...Good thing it'll be 100 degrees f. Thursday!
Anyway, if I were to do it all over again, I'd have someone diagnose system faults, fix it myself, use loc-tite on the threads for the hoses on the firewall (and maybe the dryer), have it professionaly evacuated, fill it with one of the retro kits that has the oil and freon mixed already (and I'd buy one of the $20 low-end pressure guages from O'Reilly) and fill it myself.
I've got a call into my guy up the street, and I'm going to see what it will cost to have the system re-evacuated and the crap recovered, then maybe refilled. I may refill it myself, but I dunno. If I have him do it, maybe he'll cut me some slack next month when I have to have my junk inspected .
So there it is, my A/C gift to the board, on the heals of all my idiot bragging.