thehackmechanic
Well-Known Member
So... you want to rejuvenate your a/c, and you know your York compressor's garbage and leaks like an old man after a prostate operation and yeah you'll replace it but golly gosh gee whiz you'd like to know what else leaks before you jump in with both feet?
Me too.
So I built this hose with two #10 male flares and a charging fitting in the middle. You disconnect the two #10 female flare connections from the compressor, connect them to this hose, tighten everything down, hook up one hose from a gauge set to the charging fitting, then hook up a nitrogen bottle to the center hose of the gauge set like you would for any sort of leak testing or charging, put, say, 150 psi of nitrogen into the system, and listen. You can hear large leaks. If you don't hear anything, check for small leaks by letting it sit overnight and seeing if it holds 150 psi, just like any other leak testing.
Since the length of the hose itself makes it difficult to get it between the two compressor hose fittings, I kept hoping to find some #10-male-flare-to-#10-male-flare connector with a charging fitting in between, or a drier with two #10s and a charging fitting, but there didn't seem to be any alternative. Because of the length of the hose, the angles everything takes, and the need to snug down those flare connections with big wrenches, I'm not sure I'd want to try it on a fully painted and detailed engine compartment, but on my cars, it's quite do-able.
On the one hand, it's silly, since, if you're replacing the compressor, and thus replacing the drier, are you really going to leave those 42-year-old red cloth braided hoses and that serpentine flow condenser in place, or are you going to dive in, replace every hose, and install the parallel flow condenser you really want? But on the other hand, it did let me find out that the rest of the system was tight, meaning, most importantly, the evaporator isn't ripped open -- a fact which makes me sleep easier as I order all these new hoses and fittings.
If anyone wants to borrow it, shoot me a PM.
--Rob
Me too.
So I built this hose with two #10 male flares and a charging fitting in the middle. You disconnect the two #10 female flare connections from the compressor, connect them to this hose, tighten everything down, hook up one hose from a gauge set to the charging fitting, then hook up a nitrogen bottle to the center hose of the gauge set like you would for any sort of leak testing or charging, put, say, 150 psi of nitrogen into the system, and listen. You can hear large leaks. If you don't hear anything, check for small leaks by letting it sit overnight and seeing if it holds 150 psi, just like any other leak testing.
Since the length of the hose itself makes it difficult to get it between the two compressor hose fittings, I kept hoping to find some #10-male-flare-to-#10-male-flare connector with a charging fitting in between, or a drier with two #10s and a charging fitting, but there didn't seem to be any alternative. Because of the length of the hose, the angles everything takes, and the need to snug down those flare connections with big wrenches, I'm not sure I'd want to try it on a fully painted and detailed engine compartment, but on my cars, it's quite do-able.
On the one hand, it's silly, since, if you're replacing the compressor, and thus replacing the drier, are you really going to leave those 42-year-old red cloth braided hoses and that serpentine flow condenser in place, or are you going to dive in, replace every hose, and install the parallel flow condenser you really want? But on the other hand, it did let me find out that the rest of the system was tight, meaning, most importantly, the evaporator isn't ripped open -- a fact which makes me sleep easier as I order all these new hoses and fittings.
If anyone wants to borrow it, shoot me a PM.
--Rob
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