Woo-Hoo 119 today, new record, 4th hottest day ever here, I'm so glad that my rig is tormenting me now, wonder who I teed off ...Mark

 

Well on top of the air leak problem, my ac started to cycle on and off again, on the 4th hottest day in Phoenix. Well I found the problem, I was jiggling the wires around and one of the wires to the compressor clutch came off...GRRRRRR. So, I thought about just replacing the clutch, but then I thought that the compressor has 300k+ miles on it, so I bought one of those complete kits off of ebay. Comes with compressor, clutch, pag oil, accumulator, expansion valve and seal kit. $290 bucks with next day delivery, Tuesday I hope. Anyone have experience with this kit? The guy has 99.7% PFB, so he's not cheating too many people...Mark

 

Some electrical tips, sometimes related to where your truck spent its life. It's good general tips too though.

On every electrical device the Ground is just as critical as the hot leads. There's an engine ground strap to firewall of course. The fender inner panels may have electrical devices connected to them that ground from device mounting screws into body panels. Then the body panels attached to cab are supposed to maintain the ground continuity through attachment screws.

I prefer to run jumper leads, at least 12 ga and preferably 10 ga, from clean bare metal connections at body panels and back to firewall. Also good to ground bed with a jumper wire to cab to help the grounds for your rear lights.

Good to closely inspect each wire connector. They can look okay from a distance or seem tight but many times several strands of wire are broken right at crimp connector, hidden damage you wouldn't notice at a glance.

Lastly in some cases I've found a wire looking fine and apparently well attached to connector. Closer inspection by a small cut into insulation reveals a green grungy wire hidden inside plastic insulation! Especially true of battery cable connections.

Any of these simple things could potentially effect your A/C or any other electrical critter.

 

That the guy in Miami, Arctic Air or something like it? If so I bought one of those kits several years ago for my Caprice. Worked well, and still was going when I got rid of the car several years later. Dunno about long term like OEM, but I had nothing bad to say at all.

 

No, this guy is in San Diego, but he has over 22000 fb ratings and 99.7, perty darn good. I searched cummins in his store and what came up was lots of turbos. I did a search on ebay for refrigerant recovery systems and found a Bacharach Stinger 2000 A/C Freon Recovery machine for 250 bucks. Then got a new high pressure recovery tank and a filter, to filter the old refrigerant. For less than 400 dollars, I am now set up to recover refrigerant, whoo-hoo Of course you need a recovery tank for each type of refrigerant, but I am only concerned with r12 right now. Does anyone have experience with R-410? It is said to be a R-12 replacement. It is a higher pressure refrigerant. I am going to do the job when everything gets here and will take how to pics..Mark

 

We have been having some pretty nasty weather here in California also.



http://news.yahoo.com/death-valley-t...034246832.html

We have camped here, no ides why though.
Death Valley, is such an appropriate name.

Jim

 

I love Death Valley, it is like going to the moon. My friend and I were there in August, 2011. We took a road that heads out of the valley to the NW and ends up in Bishop. It was real neat because it actually rained that day, 1 of like 3 days a year that it rains there. It was overcast and only about 80 degrees, real cool. A family from the Czech Republic flagged us down as we were starting up the road and asked if they could caravan with us for safety reasons. As we climbed out of the valley, we could see snow on top of MT. Whitney, also cool. By the way, that 130 is only 4 degrees off the world record, also from Death Valley. I like how the lowest and highest points in the US, excluding Alaska, are within a couple of hundred miles of each other...Mark

 

High temps are sexy and all, but the real problems are the low temps. I took this pic a few minutes ago. We have not been below 90 degrees for a week and the forecast doesn't see us under 90 until the 5th or 6th, then it's 89. That is A.M. also......Mark

 

It was 49 deg. at 6:00am this morning at my house!

 

Lucky, I can't even imagine 49 degrees, wait we had 49 degrees on Friday, CENTIGRADE . We won't see 49 degrees, as a low temp, until Jan, or Feb....Mark

 

Well, the new compressor kit came in. That guy in SD charged me 30 bucks for next day, shipped yesterday, in my house today by 8:00 A.M.. It is made by Behr-Hella, certainly a good brand name, but made in China (bummer). It does seem to be quality, the connectors are exact and the filter dryer looks factory. Does anyone know, When I evacuate the current r-12 system with the freon recovery machine, does that remove all the oil that is currently in there?...Mark

 

It will remove the oil that is mixed with the R12, but not the oil still in the evap. condenser, compressor, drier, etc.

Oh, and R410 is what is in my new A/C system at the house. It is supposed to replace R22, not R12.

 

Thanks, what is the best way to get the rest of the oil out? The compressor, H-block and filter dryer are all new....Mark

 

You will need to flush the lines. Then replace with new R12 oil. Look into BG Fridgiquite oil also.

 

I am converting to 134-A. Am I correct in thinking that most of the non-vapor oil is in the compressor? I found one site that says that up to 2% mineral oil left after a conversion is acceptable and will not affect performance. Another said not to use solvent, because any of that left will cause problems. I am considering Just compressed air into all the open lines, without solvent. What do you think?,,,Mark