Well today I broke down and went to work on my A/C. Pulled vacuum, and attempted to charge, she took about .94 and wouldnt go anymore. Called around, located an expansion valve, replaced pulled vacuum, and recharged, this time she went all the way, without problems.

Just passing some info on. If she wont take a full charge, FWIW replace the expansion valve on the firewall (heading into the evap.)

 

I HAVE SOME A/C ISSUES ,ON THREE VEICLES , IF POSSIBLE POST SOME PICTURES TO HELP DUMMIES LIKE ME FIGURE THIS THING OUT,
THANKS
OLD DOG

 

Old Dog post some specifics, we can probably help. The expansion valve is on the suction line just as it goes through into the cab.

 

Well I dont have any pictures. My F-I-L and Brother-I-L own a garage, and on a trip back through the area I stopped in, and figured what the hey. My BIL hooked up thier commercial A/C machine and pulled vacuum for aprox 5-10 min. since it still had some pressure, after that was done we waited and watched, still held fine, so he attempted to charge. Pressures built good, except when it starts to add 134, it got as high as .94 (2.13 is 2 lbs 2 oz) and beeped saying "system detected possible blockage" he reattempted and it wouldnt budge. I faintly remembered reading that the expansion valve on these are problem prone, so we called around and found 1 in town. Its an aluminum block about 1" wide by 2" long, and has a few ports/gaskets/inserts and 1 port for the pressure switch. If you follow your lines from the dryer(pass inner fender) and the main lines from the condensor to the firewall, you will see where both lines bolt to a "block" it sets right on the firewall between the fender and the blower motor shroud. 13mm bolt, remove the bolt, pull the asy. out of the way and I believe it is 2 t-25 torx bolts that hold the expansion valve on, the rest is installing new gaskets, etc.

If you do the leg work yourself, know that the expansion valve is $50+- and you must have vacuum pulled on the system to remove all the air once its been opened up, after the install we went 25-30 minutes.

Dont use propane to recharge with. I only did the install because it wouldnt take a charge. Even if it holds good vacuum doesnt mean there isnt a hole, since the pressure in the system is a lot higher than the vacuum it can pull. After the install, the A/C unit went right up to full fill, and it works good so far...

 

Mine kepped freesing up in the evaperator and i would have to turn it off for a fue minutes to get the ice of so that the cold are would come thru the vents!
replaced the block that came with the probe..problem solve and now that i have found the leak in the system (condencer) hopefully i won't have to recharge the system next spring like i have the last 2