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Air Conditioning Hose Leak


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Hey all,

 

I followed instructions from the following post regarding an R12a recharge a few months ago...

 

http://comancheclub.com/topic/50780-ac-r12-to-r12a-refrigerant-recharge-results/

 

My air conditioning system came back nice and cold for a couple months, but has slowly tapered back to warm again. It's 95 degrees here in Nashville so I'd really love to get this thing working again, but would prefer to not keep buying refrigerant just to fill it up and wait for it to leak out.

 

If you're facing the compressor, the hose on the left appears to have a gouge in it and is wet. I'm thinking this is my problem. Would anyone happen to know specifically what hose this is and where I could find a new one? It runs from the left side of the compressor down below the battery. 

 

 

 

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Spraybottle with a mixture of soap and wather. Spray it over every pipe, hose and component. Both with the system off and running. Leaks will create bubbles. Sniffers and uv light will never pinpoint the exact leakagepoint like soapbubbles can! Just look closely and take your time...

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Not to thread hijack - but I have to ask, how tight should the hose connections be? I've got a vacuum leak that goes from about 28" Hg to 0 in 2-3 hours. Wondering if I may have crushed or pinched an o-ring. I lubricated all of them with compressor oil when I assembled the connections. And, is CO2 available in cans like refrigerant? All hoses except one are new (couldn't find the last one), new condenser, new dryer, new pressure switch, new block thing at firewall (senior moment, can't remember what it's called), new seal in old compressor, and old evaporator (couldn't find a new one with the hole for the thermistor).

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1st this is for clean threads the move without any burrs. I normally hand tight all the way down, then apply 9 lbs of pressure on the wrench 9 to 12 pounds is more then enough. Most of the seeals can handle 19 lbs, however the seal only needs to be at half since it is no prone to move.

 

I find that most people who have car a/c leaks it turns out to be the valves for low and high side. Most people are not gental with the stems. the stems are the weakest link of mo'st a/c systems.

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Once again, apologies to the OP for the thread jack - and to Noriyori for the excellent AC advice. I think I'll go back through all of the connections, replace the o-rings and " snug" the threaded connections as you advised. I probably went a little gorilla on them thinking tighter would mean less leak potential. The only ones that wii be hard to do are the condenser connections. Maybe I won't have to take the header panel off again. BTW - I replaced the valves on the compressor and had a leak there because I used the wrong size o-ring. There's more to this AC stuff than I thought there would be. But, that's been the case with almost every project I've done on my truck.

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Well, it looks like this project has ballooned into something much bigger than I expected. That's ok though.

 

I determined that the hose I thought was leaking did in fact need to be replaced. However in the process of trying to get it off, I damaged the aluminum lines that wrap from the condenser around to the backside of the radiator  (they were on there unbelievable tight). Long story short, I decided to replace the condenser because it was ancient, got the new one installed but it didn't come with the two aluminum extensions. Does anyone know where I could buy these? I've looked everywhere.

 

If not, could I simply buy longer hoses running from the compressor and drier so they wrap around the radiator to their prospective fittings? Help! It's so hot outside!

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On my 91 those hoses have long metal lines on the condenser end that are formed to fit through the small space between the radiator and the sheet metal in the area. It doesn't look to me like there is enough space to just run hoses to/from the condenser. Hopefully, the hose shop can make and form new metal lines as part of the hoses.

Not sure what you mean by aluminum extensions for the condenser. When I replaced my condenser the fittings were in the same location and standard MJ/XJ hoses fit without any problem.

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On my 91 those hoses have long metal lines on the condenser end that are formed to fit through the small space between the radiator and the sheet metal in the area. It doesn't look to me like there is enough space to just run hoses to/from the condenser. Hopefully, the hose shop can make and form new metal lines as part of the hoses.

Not sure what you mean by aluminum extensions for the condenser. When I replaced my condenser the fittings were in the same location and standard MJ/XJ hoses fit without any problem.

 

Yeah, those long metal lines were damaged on my '87 and no one seems to be able to sell them. I could have them built, but it would be much more expensive than just running a longer custom set of hoses.

 

 

you can make a hose that has a foot more or less on the connection end. Have it pre-bent.

 

Thanks for the tip! I think I found a local hyrdraulic shop that is going to make something for me. Hoping to have this thing blowing cold in no time!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey all,

 

The struggle continues...

 

I finally got some new hoses made. While I was replacing parts, I had a new drier installed because I'm sure the old one had developed a fair amount of moisture. At this point, the systems appears to be leak free. I pulled vacuum on it yesterday and was able to get down to -30 PSI and hold.

 

So, thinking I was nearly done, I went ahead and recharged the system with Red Tek 12a. Put about a can and a half in, but noticed the compressor clutch was not running. Turns out the plug to the new drier had not been plugged in throughout the recharge process, which explains why the compressor wasn't running. 

 

Everything seems to be operational now. The compressor clutch is kicking in, but I still don't seem to have cold air. Any thoughts? I checked the pressure on the system and got a reading of 30 PSI. Do I need more refrigerant? Am I overlooking something?

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