tool

Turned on A.C the other day, (basically the first time this spring) drove like 5 minutes, there was a big bang and then a hiss of "smoke" and the truck stalled.

Was kinda shocked so I stopped and opened the hood and the line going to the A.C condenser had blown apart at a coupling. All the refrigerant escaped.

How do I repair or replace this coupling?? There are a couple green rubber o-rings and some kind of metal collar that looks like it's supposed to hold the two lines locked together.

Can I repair this and recharge with the three cans of refrigerasnt I bought at a trucks top the other day??

torquefan

Has the condenser been out of the truck recently? Accident repair?. I would think that 1) the connection was not locked together properly, or
2) Something made the head pressure go way too high (which still shouldn't blow apart a coupler.)
Also, I wonder if the compressor seized, because something made the engine stall.
Anyway, I wouldn't want to recharge the system without, firstly, having a gauge set installed to see what is going on; and, secondly, the system should be evacuated to remove any moisture. Also, the system would have lost refrigerant oil, which must be added before it operates again. Good luck, I hope it's not major.