Working on restoring the long dead AC system on the truck today. AC went out on my parents around 1992. Mom and dad took it into a shop to have it checked out and as far as I know the shop filled it back up with R12 which promptly leaked out over the next week on a camping trip to eastern washington. Dad wasn't one to spend money on such luxuries on what was primarily a dump, firewood, etc run truck and it sat empty. My wife and I apparently being soft and spoiled and using the truck to haul our camper would like A/C working again.
So today I started on vacuuming end evaluating the system. I plan on converting to R134a and using whatever I can on the system(have dryer, o-rings, conversion fittings, and ester oil). I have the system under vacuum now and it seems to be holding -30 in hg with my cheap harbor freight gauge and pump. There is some possible signs of oil leakage around the compressor seal so I am thinking that may be the issue but I am new to trouble shooting A/C and the dirty oil may well be from something else. So after putting the system on the vacuum pump and letting it sit for 15 minutes so far(will wait longer to see but results are better than expected).
Would the compressor seal leak but allow the system to hold vacuum? I see a few have replaced that seal, is it worth going that route vs replacing the whole compressor? I want to do this as cheap as I can but would rather end up with something that will last for a while.
So today I started on vacuuming end evaluating the system. I plan on converting to R134a and using whatever I can on the system(have dryer, o-rings, conversion fittings, and ester oil). I have the system under vacuum now and it seems to be holding -30 in hg with my cheap harbor freight gauge and pump. There is some possible signs of oil leakage around the compressor seal so I am thinking that may be the issue but I am new to trouble shooting A/C and the dirty oil may well be from something else. So after putting the system on the vacuum pump and letting it sit for 15 minutes so far(will wait longer to see but results are better than expected).
Would the compressor seal leak but allow the system to hold vacuum? I see a few have replaced that seal, is it worth going that route vs replacing the whole compressor? I want to do this as cheap as I can but would rather end up with something that will last for a while.