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AC compressor died...

Started by 1980sdga, 11 June 2011, 01:27 AM

KenM

Hey Jon, that weird oil colour in your pic is just due to the dye they put in it, I personally hate those dyes but they seem to be pretty commonly used now. If you valve (tx) has been replaced with a 134a valve I would stick

with that refrigerant, all the dicking around to change back to a R12 setup would not be worth it in my opinion. The performance difference should not be that noticeable if your conversion has been done right. With a new   

compressor into the bargain you will have a pretty well performing system I would have thought. The pressure difference between 12 and 134a is not a problem and will not affect performance in any way. If you still have a 12

tx valve then you don't really lose anything going back to R12, except some ozone layer  :o

But if you have been running 134a you will need to flush etc to remove synthetic oil if going back to R12, major pain.

Cheers,

KenM

Actually just re-thought my last posting, you can run R12 on synthetic oil so if you are getting a new compressor I would get a 134a one (different seals from the R12 compressor), you can then run 12 if you wish or retain the

134a. Tx valve will be the deciding factor I imagine.

Cheers,

1980sdga

Thanks for the advise guys!  I'm still on the fence regarding the R12 conversion  and a lot of stuff I'm reading on the web just confuses me  ???  Compatible seals, compatible oils, TX valve, etc.

My 134a system was working fine and I believe it would still be OK had my clutch not failed.  I'm actually kind of glad it went out because I hope to get it back to speed and not have to worry about any kind of impending internal failure gumming everything up.

Today I'm leaning towards 134a...  Mainly because any new components I install will be compatible with it and it was working pretty well. It lacked a little at idle but it IS a 30 year old system. I never broke a sweat in the 100 deg Ga. heat while driving it  :)

Here's a pic of the inside of my drier:



I wanted to see what was inside the mysterious can!  You can see that the brass screen on the end of the tube is pretty dirty but the output side is clean.  All those metal chips are from the bandsaw.  After looking in the drier I think I really need to at least pull the expansion valve and check the screen like Joe said.

KenM

ERRRKK !!!

Oh man, that's nasty, how old is that one? Suppose you don't know, could have been there quite a while by the looks of it. Would definately pull the tx valve out and check the inlet screen if it has one.

See how the mesh screen in your photo there Jon has started to scrunch up, a sure sign of high flow restriction. I too would stick with 134a, you've done all the work so going back to 12 is a backward step in my view.

Shows clearly why the filter/drier should be changed every time a system is opened.

Cheers,

1980sdga

Actually, it was installed in '01 and the car has seen about 40,000 miles since it was replaced. Looks like it was doing it's job!

Yep, I'm going in after the expansion valve. I'm on the road now to earn some $$ to buy more parts for the Benz  ;D