Any idea where I can get that kit? It looks as if it has been discontinued.

Search ebay for 'GM a/c seal washer kit'

Manny,
I paid $2000 for the really beautiful wagon... teal colored with the best aftermarket paint job I have ever seen...and I have painted some cars myself... on the door jams it looked like it was from the factory....I drove it a couple of years.... and sold it for $750.
I took it to local mechanic who did AC work and asked him to just check the AC for leaks by pressurizing it. He only put pressure in one side and told me the Txvalve was blocked. When I took that off I found it clean and working. I did find that the evaporator and the long hose across the engine were leaking... $180 on the hose.. but the evaporator was beyond my scope of fixing because I had not found FSM's for the car at that time. The front suspension was slowly deteriorating and finally was unsafe to use... the wheels were spread at the bottom too much for me... though TxBill drove it to Houston from here just fine... the transmission was losing reverse.. had tried the Trans-x and that helped for about a year... when I checked on getting the trans rebuilt the only person in the area was not too swift... AND wanted $2200.
The AC switches on the dash only considered the buttons I pushed as ' suggestions'... they would come on or not... then decide to do something else... the diagnostic for JUST that type 2 dash was 80 pages long in the FSM...
So that experience taught me I wanted a type ONE AC system... with manual wire control from the dash... my 1980 240d has that.... it taught me I wanted a manual transmission MB... my 1980 240d has that. Being at the mercy of a local yahoo dealing with my AC taught me that I needed to do the work myself... so that is how I got to where I am... but everyplace I go... I go with AC due to the other cars I have... I am not going to rush anything I do to my 240d for the benefit of the peanut gallery....

Did you guys read post #9?
Lots of PN's you can search on ebay or auto parts stores.

But, nobody can answer without photos of the R4 compressor in question because the ports do differ. There are several threads here (search) w/ photos showing problems sealing with some R4 models that people got as rebuilts for their M-B but had ports for later GM which have different depths. Personally, I would like one w/ O-ring grooves, as some M-B had. Indeed, I put a rear head w/ "GM Pad" on my Sanden that matched the M-B hoses and uses O-rings.

Greg,
Thanks for all the info. You are one of the truly useful
voices here when it comes to AC. Here's where I'm at:
a few months back I bought a Snap-on R12 recycle machine off
of Craigslist for $80. I've got an R12 sniffer and I have
access to some pressurized nitrogen. Still have a over a case of
R12. So I'm gearing up to do this right. Going to try and clean
the evap first. The current R4 has lasted for four years.
I put it in myself and had a shop pull the vacuum.

Yea, if I could afford it right now I would buy Rollguys kit with a new
Sanden and pay someone else to put it in. Still might go with Rollguy
but some seem to have had good luck with R4s from Hodyon.

We'll see......

Stay Cool,
Jeff

Rooster300SD, You might want to change the filter/dryer in your Craigslist recovery machine. Seems those machines are rarely maintained properly. You can usually pick them up a lot cheaper at a home and commercial HVAC supply company then going to Snap-On.

I agree that the R4 is an inferior compressor... but it's been in use for decades, and the problems with it in this car are the car's design limitiations, NOT the compressors...

the biggest problems are the HUGE evaporator coil, and the massive interior and glass in the vehicle, and the minuscule condenser area in the car.

changing to a sanden will get you longer life out of the compressor... but if you want to use the R4, and you already have it... be SURE you address all the problems with the vehicles system.

start with a PERFECTLY CLEAN condenser... clean it inside and out. all fins need to be meticulously cleaned and straightened... or replace the thing with a new coil. flush the hoses, and clean the evaporator.

a filter in the line feeding the condenser would do very little, as filters are designed for liquid flow to clean... and there is no liquid flow before the condenser. the screen might catch some debris when the compressor grenades, but not worth the leak potential in my opinion.

now, protecting the TXV with a filter after the condenser is a great upgrade... no idea why the receiver doesn't incorporate a filter in it...

123/126 ac systems simply aren't gonna cool well stock without upgrades if the vehicle operates above 92F ambient... sanden or R4...
CERTAINLY not with 134 in them...

Rick,
Yeah, I was going to get that filter before using the machine.
Came out of a shop where the guy just wanted it gone as it had
been just sitting for a while.
I have a friend who is a retired HVAC guy and I'll hit him up
on where to get the filter.

Thanks,
Jeff

Vstech,
Concentrating first on the condensor fins needing cleaning and straightening is a low percentage approach on these old cars.... they do need to be clean.... but what gets neglected is the EVaporator fins.... a miserable job to accomplish....and hidden from view so that it gets neglected completely for DECADES.....
The evaporator fins being blocked also works the compressor harder ... which may account for a good portion of the later years bad reputation of the R4. As I mentioned before... I called Trey of Carlisle Auto Air when I thought the R4 was generically JUNK..... and he said specifically with regards to the higher pressure R134a works under.... that later serial number R4's worked just fine on millions of other vehicles....
we on the forum of course tend to only see examples of them in Mercedes....
If the condensor can be clogged by a compressor ' black death'... which spreads junk downstream.... why do you think a filter would not catch that debris just because that is an area of high pressure vapor instead of liquid ?
The receiver - dryer does act as a filter in many regards... in the past they used to BE THE PROBLEM often... because a cloth sack was used inside it to hold the dessicant pearls..... that was subject to vibration and age....and would then clog the Txvalve when it went downstream..... many receiver -dryers use a metal cage now to eliminate that problem.

Vstech,
Ok... then I suggest that what is needed prior to the condensor is a screen filter with a chip detector which turns off the compressor as soon as it detects debris.

Here's a picture from the bottom of the compressor. If there's any way that I could cross reference those numbers with specific GM automobiles, I might get somewhere. My buddy from the GM dealership mailed me a couple of washers yesterday, so maybe I'll get lucky.

Don't know if these pics helps. I took them before taking apart my parts compressors to get the outer band to make a R4 press and also for future identification if there is a a future need before throwing the guts out.

Don't know if it means anything but the Delphi has the same SAE number as your Harrison.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/image_04.png

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/image_05.png

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...image_16_1.png

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...image_17_1.png


http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...image_17_1.png

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/image_19.png

agreed... but keep in mind... a clean evaporator will increase the load on the compressor and condenser... so like I said EVERYTHING needs to be clean.

I like the thread where somebody cleaned the evaporator and then hacked up the firewall to design in a cabin air filter... nice. I wonder how that ended up turning out?

remember... I did say clean the evaporator... you pointed out how much crud gets in there... but it's extra important to clean the heat rejection coil... the condenser. or the pressures build too high for the R4, and it disintegrates... black death.

That is another reason to have the condenser fan on whenever the compressor clutch is engaged. I designed the relay to do just that. Having the fan on right away gives the condenser a jump start, rather than having to wait for the thermal fan switch to turn on the condenser fan.