Well, I finally completed my latest big project on the trusty old 1987 wagon. Just in time for spring in Texas, it has a completely renewed air conditioning system.

During the Holiday season I replaced the evaporator, expansion valve, and vacuum elements. See photo below. This job has been discussed here many a time, so I won't belabor y'all with the blow-by-blow. I will affirm that it is a lot of work, but is reasonably straightfoward. I don't recall any hidden fasteners, impossible to reach bolt heads, or anything particularly difficult. It's just 20 hours of straightforward wrench turning.

This past weekend I finally completed the under-the-hood portion of the work. I've been slowly accumulating parts for the last six months. So now we have a new (not rebuilt!) Nippondenso 10p15c compressor, new manifold hose assembly, new condenser, dryer, o-rings with Nylog, etc. Our local a/c guru (that'd be Mark McCain, since Larry might ask...) sold me a bottle of the synthetic compressor oil he uses in all his work. It works with both R-12 and R-134a. Neat stuff.

It held vacuum for six hours without budging, so hopefully it will be leak free. Right now I have it charged with R-134 because I'd rather risk leaking ten bucks worth of refrigerant than my three precious cans of R-12. Assuming it holds OK, I'll reverse convert it when the weather moves from merely warm to Texas-hot.

I originally intended to install a parallel flow condenser, but got lazy when it came down to the wire. The input/output connections on the parallel jobbie were different enough than the standard 124 condenser that it just looked like too much work to bother.

My thanks to all who have in the past written about their experience replacing evaporators and sorting a/c systems. Without knowing that other mere mortals have completed the same job, I probably wouldn't have tried.

Ironically, now that I have the car fixed up my spouse is encouraging me to buy a new E320 wagon. Given all the sweat equity I have in this car, I'm planning to keep it for a while.

BTW, total cost for all this repair was about $1200, give or take a hundred bucks.

- JimY

Shoot, what happened to my picture! Well, here is try number 2...

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Jeeze! I give you props! That looks like a hell of a job... LOTS of work!

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1984 190D 2.2 Auto 220k
2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport 70K
2004 Lexus RX-330 ??K
2005 Chrylser Crossfire LTD 6K

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