my saturday fun of "downgrading" a 300SD to R12
 

first off, if you have 134 fittings on the condenser line, LEAVE them! I put a wrench on the line to remove the fitting, and POW!!!! the entire 134 charge went out in one fell swoop! the fitting popped right out of the line.
i used almost no force, it just picked that time to release. my guess is the guy who put it on really tightened it.
anyway thayer the member whose car I was working on took it in stride, as I have plenty of parts cars to pull lines off of... until the flange would not seal on his ebay compressor... the steel plates with imbedded orings would not reseal, so off to the parts house... nope. off to another parts house... new compressor... got it changed, sealed up great. flushed and evacuated weighed in the charge of 12, cranked up the car... no clutch engagement...
we go back to the store... no more compressors in stock... we break for a meal.
and kent has an epiphany... lets hit it...
it works. the clutch engages with a tap from a wrench, so I start wondering how to hit it with the motor runnign... kinda dangerous with a wrench... i go get a branch about 2' long... it works...
so I made him a nice "clutch engagement tool..." a bent branch!
he is soooo happy. the system is putting out 30degree air. and cold at idle in the cabin of his BLACK sedan!
we do some more evaluating, adjusting of his pedal linkage... very difficult to press the accelerator. found it to be binding on the ramp on the linkage on the valve cover, adjusted the cruise control to keep the ramp past the hump. yaaaay! smoothe pedal.
still. thinking on the a/c I get the idea to rev the motor. and the clutch engages on its own...
hmmm...
trusty multimeter out and it's sitting just barely on 12v... at idle... hmmmm turn off the ac... voltage creeps up to 13v... hmmm.
turn on the ac it clicks right in. hmmm.... voltage drops a little around 12.89 or so... battery looks good, he says it's a year old. glow plugs were energized and the voltage drops below 11... then start, then the clutch needs power, voltage is dropping low. rev the motor and the alt raises the voltage enough to pull in the clutch. success.
I'll check it more on monday,
I'll leave it up to thayer to post his pic with the a/c engagement tool...:eek:


so all said and done, a 1 hour reclaim and recharge with r12 took...


9 hours in the HOT HOT sun...
yeah me...
really fun, but wow a lot of work...

At first I thought Thayer was lucky to have you working on it...
then .... the big stick...???? I am wondering now....
and it is one thing to do something... and another to ADMIT TO IT....
LOL

hey, hitting it was his idea...
I just did not want him to get his hands near a spinning power steering pulley...

yeah, since we were pulling the compressor, we went ahead and flushed the condenser out. man there was a lot of trash from the original failed compressor in there... squeaky clean now!
he's got a new compressor, and a super clean flushed out condenser, and a new dryer, and super cold working a/c!
what could be better?

What is that metal thing which attaches to the actual compressor ?
Can not think of the name..
but the FSM says in the case of a compressor blowup that needs to be NEW..
since they say it can not be cleaned.... which I assume they mean there is a permanent filter in there which can not be replaced or cleaned properly...

I think that's the manifold line....

Nice. 30 at the vents.. Sounds like a good downgrade.

Hitting the clutch with a stick to get it to engage?? :O

all I can think of that's connected to the compressor is the flex lines themselves. there was no filter in there. perhaps they meant the rubber cannot be cleaned when residue from a blowup is done. so in that case, it's a good thing I replaced all that with the new compressor I installed today!:D

it is fascinating reading about yesterday. there was so much that went wrong...but hey..if your ac is gonna break...john's house is the place to have it happen. Im anxious to see just how cold i can get it. we read 18 degrees on the blue line in the engine bay. Only the highway will tell. its going to be a hot one back to mayberry today so that will be the real test.

i would also like to confirm that his 300sd will reach 60 in 8 seconds. i was in the car when it happened.

you cannot begin to imagine my joy when the clutch engaged. totally worth hitting it with a stick. of course now i just accelerate and it engages....right at 13 volts.

And my exact phrasing was .."why don't we just give it a little tap"

Thanks,
The MB AC FSM says that in case of blowup of previous compressor that manifold is supposed to be replaced. That it can not be cleaned and thus jeopardizes the new compressor.

two things need to be added to this thread.
one, the compressor I installed was mounted and bolted in by kent, I made him be the one under the car... and used his face to catch the oil and wrenches I dropped under there... (sorry kent) also, on the 8 second to 60 run, it was downhill, so it hardly counts as a verification of the acceleration prowess of my car. but on an uphill run, fairly steep uphill run with my two girls in the back seat, and he and I up front, it took 10.9 seconds to 57mph... pretty fast. I love my 82SD!!!

One more thing needs to be added..
when you are the one on the bottom... with people dropping wrenches on you.. do not smile... it can save a tooth....

Luckily I caught the enormous washer with my eye, and his wrench with my forehead.

Yeah, his teeth were fine.

see.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...gementtool.jpg

ugh, looking at that picture... I have waaay too much junk in my garage...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Please note the oil mark on my right eye from that hateful Bolt spacer.

Yes, you do.
Not that I do not have just as much and just as messy... but have to be honest when you say that about yours...

I have for a long time suggested people wear goggles when doing AC work..
the FSM suggests that also..
but it is usually in terms of the pressurized can blowing up.... or a valve giving way and sending a projectile at you...
Not usually that your " AC coworker " is dropping metal stuff in your face....

hey, the eye thing he did to himself! he was taking out the bolts... my hands were full holding up the compressor by the belt and the back...
the forehead, I did... 19mm gearwrench ratchet... bonk!:rolleyes:

Wearing safety glasses or goggles is a must do when working under any vehicle. there is always dirt/crap to fall in your eyes.

I always envisioned your shop having a nice smooth concrete floor, spacious work bench area with plenty of lighting, a lift and all the latest tools and gadgets.
amazing how the internet and the distance across the country (3000 miles in this case) filters out what we read and invision, to what it really is.

I do have concrete, though cracked broken and rough with my 2 Costco tent garges connected end to end, with the overflow from a broken down Barn full of shtuff, that I risk life and limb walking in.

A clean shop is the sign of a sick mind. :D

there is a guy down the road I try to connect with that has a 85 190E. this guy is so anal about clean, he even Dusts his Dust.
he has been to my place once and hasn`t been back.

Charlie

I have a great concrete floored shop, no lift, but several floor jacks, a chain hoist that will lift the entire car, a nice 48" wide bench about 18' long with nice full size tool boxes and an amazing library of shop manuals...
unfortunately it's covered in crap from 10 years of modest mess... I make room every once in a while... not lately though.

You have what ? 8,000 posts here ? He has 126.... you were the " AC Mechanic In Charge"..... you should have insisted he and you wear goggles...
It only took me two emergency eye doctor after hours calls back in the 1970's to figure it out... was lucky...only rust flakes on my eyeball... which ,by the way ,will not wash out with just a rinse... requires an eye doctor to pluck from your cornea.....

hmmmm two pair sitting in the toolbox by the car... next time for sure.
although with me up top, perhaps a full face shield would be needed...:eek:

Ditto,

One trip to the eye doctor after drilling upside down and then having to wear an eye patch for several days, was enough for me. Wearing that patch, with the eye strain on the other and the resulting headaches, I realized how much effect loss of eyesight can have, especially if it is your dominant eye. I've found the best solution is getting the most comfortable eye protection you can find so you won't mind wearing them.

BTW, the clutch engagement problem sounds an awful lot like a regulator. Maybe it's not grounding to the alternator case very well. On mine, a little cleaning in that area solved the problem.

Are you talking about the wire to and from the alternator, or another area?

I was also considering double grounding the (new) battery to improve current.


crap...I just blew my 126 post count without taking a picture of it.

Don't worry, your picture holding the stick makes up for it...

I'm talking about where the regulator screws to the back of the alternator. After disconnecting the battery of course, unscrew the regulator from the back of the alternator. Two phillips screws and it just tilts out.

Note a couple of things while you have it out. Check the brush length and check the grounding surface where it mates with the alternator. You will see that one side grounds to the alternator case. Mine had a little corrosion, due to its location, and a little cleaning made the charging voltage maintain a more constant level.

No, no - it's either 'projects' or 'non recycled raw stock.'