So what did you do with your truck today?

laserjock said:

Can I make a suggestion? For less than $250, I put all new hoses condenser, evaporator, dryer and compressor on mine. Installed the 134 orifice tube and never looked back. You will never get the thing clean enough to not plug the orifice again over time. People complain about 134 cooling but mine does just fine.

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We'll see... I think I got it pretty clean, lots of solvent and compressed air on a warm day There was an inline filter screen that someone stuck on the condenser (actually on the outlet side!) and it was clean. The orifice tube screen was blocked solid with Black Death, as were the adapter fittings on the original R-12 ports. Not a lot of stuff in the evaporator either, since it was all trapped in the orifice inlet screen!

I am planning to charge it with R-134a, since my new compressor comes precharged with 3 oz of PAG 46 oil anyway (system takes 7 oz). When I had my '84 F-150, since the compressor was leaking, I put a new one on, changed receiver-dryer and O-rings, nothing else, and charged with 134 to the rule-of-thumb 2.2 to 2.5 times the ambient temp (e.g. 80F = 176 to 200 psi). Worked great, but that truck had a good sized condenser too (although still the tube & fin that "everyone knows" doesn't work with 134)

There are alternative refrigerants too. Hydrocarbons work great, are cheap and have no ozone depleting potential. Although, thanks to lobbying by MACS and Dupont, they are illegal in 17 states (last time I checked) and banned by the EPA too. Lots of other countries use them and don't have fireballs coming out the windows a la "Cheech and Chong"...

But I digress. If my orifice screen plugs up again I will be back to admit you were right

I hope you got it all cleaned out!

DrCharles said:

Lots of other countries use them and don't have fireballs coming out the windows a la "Cheech and Chong"

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I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that didn't have anything to do with "hydrocarbons" hahaha

It was a scene where they stole the neighbor's T-bird and needed gas so they siphoned gas into a trash can (sloshing it everywhere), then lit up a joint.

I invested $20 in a quart of "AC Pro Clean & Flush" and glad I did.... I poured about 3/4 of it into the condenser and the remainder into the evaporator, and let them both sit for a while. Then used air to blow it back out into a jug. The flush leaving the condenser was only slightly discolored, but the first part of the evaporator discharge was really dark! It cleared up as it ran through and I made sure both were fully blown dry.
Now to wait for my new receiver-dryer and compressor... allegedly coming in 2 days but I am not holding my breath.

Finally ordered my headlight relay harness from Bronco Graveyard this morning after driving basically blind through the rain to work again. I was going to just make my own but for $40 shipped to my door I have all new materials an can bolt it in in a matter of minutes. It's a no brainer to me. I've got enough projects to weigh cost vs time now lol!

IDIT getting some shiny upgrades

So far I haven't done anything today... but the a/c compressor and other parts are "On FedEx vehicle for delivery" so I keep looking out the front door

FedEx showed up just as I was finishing the first lawn-mower ride of the year

So I removed the old compressor, and while it was out, changed the possibly squeaky idler pulley. New compressor bolted right in, I added 4 oz. more PAG 46 oil to the new receiver-dryer, hooked everything up including a red orifice tube, pulled a vacuum for a good while (which also held tight, so no leaks). I put in a little R-134a and... the compressor clutch wouldn't engage even with over 40 psi in the system! Jumpering the low-pressure switch terminals worked. I put the old switch back on and it runs. Another defective-out-of-the-box Autozone part!


Anyhow I'd set the cylinder on an electronic scale and charged a total of 1.5 lb of R-134a while watching the gauges, max a/c with blower on high and the cab door open. At that point I had 28 psi low and 140 psi high pressures (on a 65 degree ambient). Which is just about right, maybe a little undercharge (high psi = 2.2 to 2.5x ambient F). Will recheck on a hotter day. Icy air is coming out of the ducts

The bad news is that the mysterious squeaking/chirping is louder than ever. At this point the only part in that entire area that hasn't been replaced is the vacuum pump... Naturally that's a $79 part from Rock Auto (and considerably worse locally, and they don't stock them here anyway).

Vacuum pump is a usual culprit for a chirp.
Stupid things.

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Rock Auto wants $79 including core and shipping for the Cardone remanufactured (64-1007) pump.

Autozone charges $108 plus $10 core and will only ship-to-home. The Dorman is $115 and has to be "ordered in store". O'Reilly actually stocks the same Cardone reman - for $123 plus core!!

That's a no-brainer... looks like I'll be waiting a few days for FedEx Ground again At the rate it's chirping louder, it's a good thing I don't have to drive it anywhere...

DrCharles said:

At the rate it's chirping louder, it's a good thing I don't have to drive it anywhere...

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Fyi if you feel like messing with it, the vacuum pump can be partially disassembled and you can change the oil. Even the bearing can be replaced, but sadly I don't think you can buy just the diaphram...

Took 15min to install my new rear shocks today. Last two RockAuto had on closeout for $12/ea. KYB GR2 nitrogen shocks.

The passengers side was pretty messed up, neither of the bottom bolts were fully tightened, you could see where the threads had been beaten flat by the sleeve hitting them for thousands of miles.


New ones are much better looking lol!



Old ones must have been OLD. They still said Made in the USA lol!

I figured they were factory, but they are Monroe SensaTrac shocks so they couldn't be OE. As rusty as they were on this truck from Texas, I'd wager they were probably 10+ years old anyway. Collapsed very easily by hand and were VERY hard to extend by hand too.

The new ones seem pretty weak but we'll see how they do. Can't imagine them being worse than the old ones though.

Also installed my headlight relay harness from Bronco Graveyard. I'll post pics after it's dark enough to tell what difference it made.

Taking mine off to the races again [emoji2]



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Drove it into work today. First drive after dark with the headlight relay harness installed, seems like quite a difference. The sun was starting to come up and I could still tell my headlights were on, thats a first!

I tightened the passenger side brake up a little too much last night so I'll have to back it off a few clicks. Good news is now the parking brake works!