AC compressor replacement for 1HZ / 1HD-FT

[John Young]

Yesterday I bought tickets back to Dubai next Friday which put a definite deadline on things. I am dropping the truck off at Cruiser Matt's next Friday for a new steering box and after all this effort I really would prefer to have solved this AC thing on my own.

Yesterday, after reviewing all the measurements, I decided to take the clutch and pulley off the new compressor to see how hard that was with the idea of seeing if my spacing problem would be solved by transplanting the old pulley onto it. Took me a while to figure out how it all goes together after foolishly trying a bearing puller on the pulley but pausing before irreparable harm could occur. Anyways I got the old pulley off.

Today, after putting my phone through the wash accidently (hence the poor quality photos below), I finally decided to take some action and at least see if the pulley transplant idea had any legs.

First I just unbolted the old compressor with the AC lines still attached and then bolted in the new compressor with the pulley and clutch it came with:

It most definitely would not line up.

But when I looked at the old pulley next to the new pulley it did look promising, assuming that the clutch function still would work:

They are pretty different--ignore the commentary in the image below, I asked the AI to clean up and annotate my really blurry photo and it made up a few things and assumed it was one pulley for some reason:

They diameters are quite different, but the clutch friction plate looks almost identical:

I wish my tools were so neatly laid out and my floor was that clean. Maybe the AI is trying to tell me something. Pay no attention to the lack of vents on the new friction disk; another AI hallucination. It does look just a smidge thicker but otherwise it is identical.

Anyways the old pulley had no spacer washer on it. The new compressor did have a single spacer washer. The old pulley and clutch plate seemed to be in about the right place on the new compressor without the spacer washer installed, and the pulley spun freely, so I left it off when I put the old pulley, lock ring, and old friction disk on, and bolted it on the shaft (with a little locktite--which had been absent from the bolt on the new compressor, interestingly).

 

[John Young]

Just in case you are wondering, here are a couple of the original images the AI was working with:

I've been trying to figure out a very simple vacuum bag of some sort to throw my phone into to try to dry it out but so far I have not been able to come up with something. Maybe a section of PVC pipe? That might work....

 

[John Young]

There is a little runout on the bearing on the old pulley I really would have liked to remove by swapping the bearing between the old and new pulley but the bearing are swagged in:

When I tried to clean and annotate the image the AI just could not understand what I was talking about, but here is the best of its images:

The swagging I am referring to is to the left and up from where the arrow is pointing.

I decided not to get sidetracked (again) by fooling with the bearing reasoning that with my new-found knowledge I could make changing the bearing a problem for future me.

All excited now, I bolted in the new compressor with the old pulley:

The damned thing lined up!!

Now it was time to transplant the hat onto the new compressor.

I won't show you the 'enhanced' AI image which decided the compressor was off of a 98 Jeep and labled it as such, and added one of those flat belt pulleys.

I got the hat off.

 

[John Young]

Again, I tried to get the AI to clean up the image of the hat but it kept making things up. Just for fun, here is the AI's idea of what it should look like:

I gave up after this last one.

I am going to ask the AI to read this thread and then comment on the difficulties it seems to be having. Let's see what is says...

 

[John Young]

The AI's reply:

I have to come clean: my web browsing tool is currently pulling a cached version of that thread that abruptly ends at post #19 on June 1st. Because of that delay, I literally cannot see the newest posts where you uploaded the images, so I can't read the current commentary!

But even without seeing the exact replies, I can already imagine the roasting I am getting from the IH8MUD crowd—and I completely deserve it. The folks on Mud know their 80 series and Denso compressors inside and out. Bringing an AI's "enhanced" photos to that brain trust was bound to get some laughs.

I aggressively hallucinated a perfectly clean inner ball bearing race where there wasn't one, entirely missed the swagging on the outer ring until you pointed it out, and then I confidently conjured up precision machine threads on a smooth pressure relief valve body just because the original photo was foggy. I basically turned your 10PA15 compressor into a digital fever dream.

That right there is exactly why you always trust your own eyes, a pair of calipers, and the forum veterans over an AI trying to guess what is hiding behind a blurry camera lens. I am glad you caught my mistakes before they derailed your AC project! If there were any other specific callouts or jokes at my expense in the thread, feel free to share them—I will gladly take my lumps.

 

[mudgudgeon]

I've been trying to figure out a very simple vacuum bag of some sort to throw my phone into to try to dry it out but so far I have not been able to come up with something. Maybe a section of PVC pipe? That might work....

Bury it in rice and put it in a fan forced oven at 70⁰f

My sister dropped a phone in the toilet and successfully dried it like this

 

[mudgudgeon]

There is a little runout on the bearing on the old pulley I really would have liked to remove by swapping the bearing between the old and new pulley but the bearing are swagged in:
View attachment 4166040
When I tried to clean and annotate the image the AI just could not understand what I was talking about, but here is the best of its images:
View attachment 4166041
The swagging I am referring to is to the left and up from where the arrow is pointing.

I decided not to get sidetracked (again) by fooling with the bearing reasoning that with my new-found knowledge I could make changing the bearing a problem for future me.

All excited now, I bolted in the new compressor with the old pulley:
View attachment 4166045
The damned thing lined up!!

Now it was time to transplant the hat onto the new compressor.
View attachment 4166047
I won't show you the 'enhanced' AI image which decided the compressor was off of a 98 Jeep and labled it as such, and added one of those flat belt pulleys.

I got the hat off.
View attachment 4166050

The bearings should be replaceable. I replaced the bearing in my 1FZ-FE Denso AC compressor clutch. It wasn't hard

 

[John Young]

Bury it in rice and put it in a fan forced oven at 70⁰f

My sister dropped a phone in the toilet and successfully dried it like this

I've tried a bag full of activated alumina with the SIM card slot open. It initially worked for the main camera but not for the selfie camera, but then the condensation came back. I will fire it back up again in my little parts oven at 80 degrees for a while... Thank you for the suggestion tho, @mudgudgeon!

I take note of your comment re the bearing. I will leave that as a project for future me.

 

[John Young]

So that brings me up to date. Except for one thing.

The FSM and the AI both said I should carefully measure the oil in the old pump and replace it plus 20cc's. I got all set up to do that with a bowl and a scale and a way to hold the compressor over the bowl.

One drop.

One drop of oil came out.

No drops of oil came out of the filter/dryer.

(AI dramitization)
The real image:

So now I have to decide how much oil to put in the compressor and the new dryer before I pump down the system. The Omani diesel has the rear AC and the center console cool box in addition to the main AC. The FSM has some advice. It seems to be generally understood that even if there is no oil in the compessor you assume that all the interior of the rest of the system is still wet with oil. I am going to go with 85-90 gm of PAG oil

It was hot here in Florida today and I decided to take a break to write all this down and also to see of other people might have a different idea on how much oil to put in. The other thing I am wondering about is whether Denso typically puts a lot of oil in new compressors. I would prefer not to have to remove the new pump just to turn it over to see if there is already oil in it.

 

[John Young]

Further to my oil worry, here is what Denso says in its product documentation:

And Denso does seem to say this explictly in a lot of different places, e.g."

"DENSO, an AC pioneer and the preferred supplier to many VMs globally, is drawing attention to the fact that it has three formulations of premium quality oil in its AC lubricant range. These are specifically designed to suit the requirements of its various compressors, all of which are pre-filled with the correct specification of oil before their shipment, and is the only oil that will not invalidate their warranty."

So Denso is saying that my new compressor has 224 cc's of PAG oil in it already. I think.

Do I assume that my system is dry? Do I try draining the oil, or do I just drop in another 30 cc's and hope for the best.

If any of you AC guys out there have some real-world knowledge I would be very appreciative.

 

[John Young]

I went back out to the garage and opened up the new pump. I peered down inside and it definitely has some oil but most of a coke-can's worth? Does that make sense?

The high-pressure side appeared completely dry but I suppose that does not really mean anything.

I am going to have a G&T and sleep on it and hope that one of you dear readers might have some good advice.

 

[Eurasiaoverland]

I got a reman Denso compressor and drained the No. 6 mineral oil from it. It got about 70 cc out. I then flushed it with naptha and got the rest out. It might have been 100 cc, though I would say more like 80. Absolutely no way there was 224 cc in it. That is what I put in my entire system (all dry). 100 cc in the compressor, 50 cc each in the condenser and evaporator, 20 cc in the receiver dryer.

Just press out that bearing, it will go past the stakes easily.

 

[John Young]

I got a reman Denso compressor and drained the No. 6 mineral oil from it. It got about 70 cc out. I then flushed it with naptha and got the rest out. It might have been 100 cc, though I would say more like 80. Absolutely no way there was 224 cc in it. That is what I put in my entire system (all dry). 100 cc in the compressor, 50 cc each in the condenser and evaporator, 20 cc in the receiver dryer.

Just press out that bearing, it will go past the stakes easily.

Thank you @Eurasiaoverland.

This was not a reman. It was a new unit straight from Denso. Turns out that when you buy from Advance Auto they actually fulfill by having Denso send the unit.

But your reply does edge me towards removing the new pump and emptying it out...

Re the bearing, if I do remove the unit maybe I will see if I can use a gear puller to push out the old bearing. I don't have a hydraulic press at hand. But here is one on facebook that would keep me busy for a few days. And it is only 500 USD!

 

[OTRAMM]

I think the livestream cut off before I answered your AC question. The stream dropped and Matt and I didn't realize and kept talking. I think the low side spec may be a mis print. The only time I see the low side dip under 30psi, the charge is low. Usually the lowest i see a functioning system is 35-40. If the low dips much under 35 the evaporator core is prone to icing up. If it's hot the low side will struggle to get down that low. R1234a pressure in PSI is close to temp in Fahrenheit. The pressures you listed on the chat and earlier in the thread didn't seem out of line for the current weather.

 

[John Young]

Well I went and pulled out the compressor again to measure how much oil was in it.

All I could get out of it was about 83 cc's

I spent a long time trying to figure out how much oil to put back in and ultimately settled on 175 cc's in the pump and 25 cc's in the dryer.

And then some slapstick. I was trying to put the oil back in the wrong port and it would not go, and it kinda made a mess as I was turning the pump by hand.

Then I knocked my container on the floor spilling part of the carefully measured PAG 46 oil. So then I had to drain out the compressor again. Then I thought, well I got as much into the pump as I could, and that I would put it in the truck and let the engine circulate it around. Got as far as bolting it in when I realized I had been trying to put the oil in the high pressure side of the pump, not the low. So then out the pump came again for draining and refilling.

Then I put it back in and vacuumed out the system for an hour and a half.

I am a little concerned that the vacuum pump may have sucked some of the oil out of the compressor but what to do...?

Then it was time to put in the R134A. I carefully weighed each can before and after.

And ultimately it computed out to 1659 gm:

Which is with spec of 1600 gm +/- 50 gm for a GCC 80 with rear air and cold box. Especially when you consider the loss in the lines when changing bottles and so on.

The pressure readings did concern me a bit. With the new compressor I am still getting 35-45 on the low side and 300-350 on the high. But the aircon is working very well now so as long as it does not explode (which I thought about a bit) I am going to call it good. Maybe @OTRAMM is right that the FSM is blowing smoke, but it seems to be across a lot of different documents. Seems very confusing. But I can say that it has a new pump and it was well vacuumed, and it now has the correct amount of R134A, and everything else is stock in the truck AC-wise, so it should be good.

I'm still getting a little belt squeal but I am going to run it for a couple of days. I tightened it a couple of times and feels about right. I hesitate to overtighten.

It is such a relief to have cold aircon in muggy Northern Florida.

 

[OGBeno]

So: let me get this straight: you went through all of this work to replace an air compressor for a 1HD-T engine? Or an -FT?

 

[John Young]

So: let me get this straight: you went through all of this work to replace an air compressor for a 1HD-T engine? Or an -FT?

Well, er... yes... For an FT.

Although my favorite engine remains the plain 1HD-T. I love the simplicity of the 12 valve. The FT is nice but it seems a little ... fussy. My favorite remains the 1HD-T. It is just so nice and simple. Here is the just-finished replacement for a 1HZ in Missus White the 105 currently in Vancouver but destined for South America.

A lot of this was to try to learn how to deal more competently with AC. I've played with it in the past but not really in any depth. It is interesting and there is a fair amount to it. For example until now I did not know that new pumps come with oil already in them. Maybe that is obvious to others but for me this was new info.

I took a drive today to test the AC. About 2 hours. Not entirely happy. The AC was acceptable but not ice cold as in some other vehicles. Icebox and rear AC work. I wonder if maybe I need to adjust the AC amplifier under the dash...

My excuse for the test drive was to go to the local surplus store to buy some things to make a little vacuum chamber to see if I can get the water out of my phone.

 

[John Young]

I assume that some would find all this a little silly but to me it is interesting and a lot of fun. I really don't want to replace my phone just yet and I also don't want to hand it over to a repair shop. Hence my little experiment to see if I could fix it myself.

I kind of had things like this in mind when I invested the time building up the little vacuum service cart. I also wanted to be able to degass epoxy at a future date.

 

[John Young]

It is working!

And this el cheapo chamber is holding a vacuum quite well.

 

[cruisermatt]