working on your own A/C is worth it if you live in a hot area and have a few vehicles that need it. Its got a learning curve to it. Get a manual printed up just for A/C and that will help a lot. And you will need to buy some new cool tools which is the best part!

 

I've personally changed both the compressor and the evaporator on mine. Compressor is pretty simple, but the evaporator is no fun. But I have a good friend who is a a/c tech and he evacuated and re-charged the system for me. With out his help I probably would have had a shop do the who job.

 

If you want to do AC on the cheap just change the compressor but cap the lines immediatly after you loosen them to keep the mosture out. Drain the old oil out of the old oil compressor and measure it. then put that much new oil in the new compressor and as said above rotate it once installed. Then you have to charge the system. This is where it can get tricky. But there is a simple way to do it. If you go to your local parts store see if they can get you a product called red tek. It comes in cans, so you have to buy a small hose that hooks up to your low side conector and taps the can on the other side. One can equals 16 onces of 134A, or 18 onces of r12. the instructions are on the side of the can, and its easy to do. Now i'm not saying that you shouldn't vaccume the system out, but i've refilled systems lots with out vaccumeing them and never had an issuse yet. Its cheap and easy but not quite the proper way, guages and a vaccume pump are more proper.