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I said with The Biscayne that I was never doing unreliable AC again.
The Beast has unreliable AC.
I'm out.
I don't have the resources to keep fixing things and never getting to the modding part of hot rodding.
Update:
It might have been a simple fix.
I went out to the car to move it more out of the way, since I was planning on letting it sit for a while.
On a lark I popped the hood and pushed down the plunger on the HP port. Hardly a pssssh.
I had a can of R134a laying around so I put it in.
Compressor fired right up and the air was blowing cold!
That's a positive sign. I had been imagining that the sealant we tried had clogged something.
So I shut it off and disconnected my fill line and I heard hissing from the LP port!
So I asked Marv if he could come over with his gauges and a couple cans of R134a, then removed the schrader valve from the LP port; losing that can I'd just put in... C'est la vie.
New schrader installed, two 12oz cans installed. Pressures reading correctly and air blowing 43° at the center vent (just like the tables in the service manual says for 93% humidity at 73°F.)
Cautious optimism installed!
If we're really lucky, this was where the leak has been all along. Eyes crossed.
First rule of older car maintenance is never give up. Most times it is something stupid simple.
ReplyDeleteExample - AC on my 2005 VW Passat was intermittent. Checked every single component and R134a, all read OK, (this was weeks of checking) problem persisted. Swapped relays of AC and another less critical circuit that used exact same relay, no more intermittence. Disassembled the "bad" relay that ohmed 100% OK cold. Jeweler loupe found hairline crack around main power pin feed to the AC compressor. Cold it made contact, hot from current, open circuit. Re soldered it and put in glovebox as emergency spare. This was a bear to locate. Now know that VW relays in general are famous for this fault due to how relay pins are soldered to the PC board foil traces. Vibration and heat cause this time and again. Carry on bro, its all fun and games.
I've heard some of the valves can go bad, maybe that has been your problem all along.
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Fred in Texas, about sealer in an ac system. A friend borrowed my gauges and ruined them with sealer. And I've seen expansion valves plugged by sealer. YMMV.
ReplyDeleteYMMV indeed. I know people who put a can of sealer in and never had problems again. I know people with the same make and model car who had the compressor lock up from it.
DeleteAC is voodoo!
It's just under $1,000 for all the parts that the refrigerant touches, plus a heater core. I know I can do the work to replace all of it, I just hope to not go there because accessing the evaporator/heater core is a non trivial level of take dash apart.
While his focus is older stuff Rob Siegal's book "Just Needs a Recharge" sounds like a useful guide. He write the Hack Mechanic column for Hagerty as well as various books
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