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AC Fiasco

Chief Brody

Chief Brody

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I was tired of the uncool air conditioning in my Ranger so I bought a thermometer and stuck it in the vent.
58 degrees

I decided that I could get it colder than that.

I bought a manifold gauge set...R12...figured I could easily convert it to R134a quick connect....WRONG.

NOBODY had them.

After driving all over I found a set at CARQUEST.....$40.00!!!

I got them anyway...3 cans of R134a too
 
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So in with the 30oz of R134a....

Go driving around...and the thermometer is actually 2 degrees warmer than before I did this...:doah:
 
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So I start thinking about what could have went wrong....Ahaah!!! I thought....dummy, you didn't change the orifice tube.

So I go buy an orifice tube....

Can't figure out where it is so I start cracking open lines and replacing O-rings...still didn't find it when I ran into a strange fitting I had never seen before..

GOOGLE....

"spring fitting"...it said...need special tools to remove them...

Go to part store buy stupid tools...$14
 
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I also picked up "synthetic" coolant...says 18% cooler...twice the price....


I get back...finally find the orifice tube....it's on the bottom of the dryer...very, very hard to get to and it is a spring lock fitting.

After cussing and shoulder pain I get the new orifice tube in...the old one was a little dirty but not completely clogged and no black stuff at all.

Now...I get it closed up and start the compressor to run the air pump again...I just started it when I here a BOOM!

No power...
 
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No power at my house...I go back in...call the utility company...my phone goes out. I here three more loud booms...

I go back outside and here another one....I look down the street towards the main street and I see a car smoking...has a live power line dancing on top of it....every time it arcs you hear a sonic boom....now the grass is on fire...

Anyway...nobody injured but power off for three hours...I couldn't do anything...
 
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Finally, power back on....pull vacuum of -30psi on the system....and start to charge.

First can goes in.....then second can goes in...roughly 30oz just as prescribed.

Get in and drive real fast for several minutes...look at the thermometer...still at 60.

The synthetic didn't do squat...neither did replacing the orifice tube...

and now it's 2 degrees warmer than if I had just left it alone.

and my wallet is over a hundred dollars thinner...:doah::doah::doah::doah:
 
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Aaahhh........I got nothing..........

Ok, maybe.......

You say you got a gauge set. First, I know this sound silly, but make sure the compressor is staying on.
Then, check the pressures on the low and high side.
You do have the gauges hooked to the high side, right?
DO Not run it without a gauge hooked to the high side. It should not be over about 250lbs or so.
I'm betting it going to be around 350-400. Don't run it with it that high.
 
...you ain't alone Chief...worked on my rigs ac today...hoses were made wrong, did my best to tweak them...manifold block keeps leaking...got a 134a cycle switch, it had the wrong connectors on it.

It wasn't suppose to be this difficult. :doah:

if the hoses don't work I'll rework the old ones...should have done that to start with
 
Fordum said:
Aaahhh........I got nothing..........

Ok, maybe.......

You say you got a gauge set. First, I know this sound silly, but make sure the compressor is staying on.
Then, check the pressures on the low and high side.
You do have the gauges hooked to the high side, right?
DO Not run it without a gauge hooked to the high side. It should not be over about 250lbs or so.
I'm betting it going to be around 350-400. Don't run it with it that high.
Click to expand...

Got the gauges hooked up correctly...low side is setting pretty at about 35psi...and the high side is pushing 250.
 
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I did see it go over 300 at one point during charging though...
 
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Mine doesn't have an expansion valve...I'm told it's a different kind of system...some had dealer installed expansion valves...mine doesn't.
 
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only thing I can figure is maybe I am getting some heat blended in with the cabin air and it's not the cooling system at all...:dunno:
 
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Ok, this isn't a John Deere tractor by any chance is it?????

Just go through helping on one Thursday with the same symptoms.

Pressures sound good. If you let it run a few minutes, I'll bet you see lots of condensation, and the return line will be nice and cold.

Almost certainly a stuck blend door. Try turning from full heat to full cool and see if it helps.
On the JD, switching to full heat had no effect. The door was not moving at all. Air was the same temp no matter what setting.
 
Fordum said:
Ok, this isn't a John Deere tractor by any chance is it?????

Just go through helping on one Thursday with the same symptoms.

Pressures sound good. If you let it run a few minutes, I'll bet you see lots of condensation, and the return line will be nice and cold.

Almost certainly a stuck blend door. Try turning from full heat to full cool and see if it helps.
On the JD, switching to full heat had no effect. The door was not moving at all. Air was the same temp no matter what setting.
Click to expand...


Might as well be...it's a green ford...I will try the heat thing....what if my blend door is funked up?
 
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If your blend door is funked up, you will have to unfunk it.....
Depending on the year, it may be vacuum or electric. If its vacuum, then you may have a line off.
Turn the fan to low, and with the engine idling, and all noise as low as you can get it, move the controls from AC to heat and back, plus move the temp from cold to hot. Listen for things moving behind the dash.
If its vacuum, you should hear hissing as the vacuum is redirected back and forth.

On some vehicles you can see the actuators under the dash. Check the passenger side first.
Many years ago, down in the swamp, I had the opposite problem. Friend's pickup would not get warm or go to defrost.
I had to remove half the dash, but finally found a pencil that had fallen down the defrost vent and jammed a door at the bottom of the dash.

Let it run on high cool for a few minutes, and feel the return line. It should be cold and sweating.
If it is, and your air is not cool, then the air is being diverted around the evaporator core by a wrong positioned door.
 
Fordum said:
Depending on the year, it may be vacuum or electric. If its vacuum, then you may have a line off.
Click to expand...

I'm all vacuum line

Something is going on in there with the door or the vacuum line...I turn it to heat and it will set you on fire...turn it to cold and it difinitely cools down....turn it to max cool and it actually gets warmer and the air starts coming out the defrost vents and then back to the dash and then back again it fluctuates around in Max AC.

Fordum said:
Let it run on high cool for a few minutes, and feel the return line. It should be cold and sweating.
If it is, and your air is not cool, then the air is being diverted around the evaporator core by a wrong positioned door.
Click to expand...

The line is cool and sweating like crazy...I wouldn't call it cold though...
 
There is a white vacuum line that appears to be the "master"...it runs to a lot of places, but under the hood it also has a run that goes to a thing the heater hoses are connected to...I bet that thing is suppose to shut off the water to the heater core and I don't think it is getting enough vacuum to make it work...
 
I think I've owned 30+ vehicles,and 25 of them had no A/C,the few that did either never worked or didn't work more than a few hours after spending up to 200+ bucks to repair the compressor,hoses,freon added,etc,so I've given up on ever having a car with an A/C that works--only if I'm ever "rich" will it ever happen!.....my Contour spoiled me for the first 3 years I owned it,it worked great,ice came out of the vents..but its lost its charge now,and I'm not going to spend a nickel to "fix" it--...much as I would have loved having it work the past 2 days,being 96 and 91 degrees with a 70 degree dew point...:doah:....

Usually we only get a few heat waves up here,mayhe 2-3 weeks of "unbraerable" heat and humidity..the rest of the year its much more important your heater and defroster works perfectly.:rolleyes:..but it does suck sweltering with open windows when everyone else is next to you at a red light with all the windows rolled up and they have that "haa-haa sucker" :D look on their faces...:mad:..and it nice if your headed out for a night out and you dont arrive all sweaty and smelly ..
 
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