Bring your car to your local mechanic and have them recharge it for you. Regardless of the coolant R12 or R134 your going to see an improvement getting all the air and moisture out by having them put the car on a vacuum pump.

I don't assume that everyone does but i do :). I actually bought my recovery machine for $50 on CL. From personal experience, I know that these old barges can have good working A/C using R134 provided that the conversion is done correctly. One of my 6.9's was converted by the PO to R134.

From what I can see, it has a new compressor, condenser, hoses and the aluminum body ACCII unit. It will turn your fingers blue. The job was done correctly and he must have spent thousands on it.

The reality is that with most of the cars that we drive, this can be cost prohibitive as not many people will drop $4000 replacing every A/C component in a $1500 car. I guess the point that I am making is that if all you need to do is replace a seal or a compressor, it may be more effort then it's worth to convert to R134 when R12 is still pretty cheap. I do feel that if you are going to convert, it should be to a standardized product like R134 and not to anything else. Even when I replaced the condenser on my other 6.9, the box clearly stated in bold red letters that the warranty will be voided if anything other then R12 or R134 is used.

I'm really glad to hear you do your own recovery but keep in mind you are probably one of the few.

The reason why so many of these cars survive is because of owners that are willing to write the checks to keep their cars going. If you sit down and do the math everyone spends more than they paid on service and repairs to keep their Mercedes going over their ownership if they are not the typical use it up and quickly sell it before you have to repair it. The glorious trailer trash looking for a bit of style and attention that would be driving Hondas if older MB's were not so cheap. $4000 over 10 years of ownership is only $400 a year, $33 a month for a beautiful car with brutally cold A/C. Seems pretty cheap to me! Depending on the condition of the rest of the car a potential selling point to a buyer knowing that the car they are buying had an expensive upgrade. Well sorted 6.9's do fetch a tad more than $1500.

I do agree that poorly done 134 conversions work but are horrible. I have test driven cars with backyard 134 conversions and enjoyed the humid semi cool air blowing out of the vents with the fans running full bore. Total Crap! I would rather roll the windows down and at least be able to breathe. :)

To put things in perspective the Porsche 944 I just bought has a recent receipt in the glove compartment for a $6700 visit to the mechanic. Easily double what the car was worth in one service visit.

I've got receipts like that for my 750iL too (last was summer '05 for $5800 or something insane), but.. it's still R12.

Honestly, that stuff will be around until we're all forced to drive non-internal combustion vehicles. Just doesn't make sense to me to convert it when the properly working R12 is great. I got my R12 machine up in Porter (where most of my tools are/workshop) that I too got on CL for sub $200. As I stress to people, buy HVAC stuff off season.

Just seems like you're not the DIY guy at all (which is fine, we have plenty of enthusiasts here that don't like to get into it for whatever reason), so the conversion can/does make more sense. I enjoy operating on my vehicles, if I didn't, there'd be zero sense to keep these all around. It's not my career, nor do I make cash off it. Just my way to relax, have a good time, and keep me out of trouble.

Hell, part of the fun is scouring for the odd parts or the odd car and bring it back from the grave.

I used to do a lot of DIY stuff. A busy work schedule and lack of time sort of killed that for me over the years. A lot of my DIY work has evolved beyond cars as well http://www.systemv.org/site.html . I still like to have a complete understanding of how the systems on the car work. I'm also really lucky to have two really super honest super reasonable independent mechanics. I enjoy making them a buck and keeping them around as they have saved me a TON of money over the years keeping me away from the evil lying manipulating dealerships.

Ironically in the trunk of the car I just did the conversion on is a brand new unused compressor and receiver dryer and other parts that I bought planning to do some of the work myself.

R-12 question
 

I have disconnected my A/C after the bearings on the tensioner went out. Getting that part was expensive. Now I am going to put the belt back on and take it to get recharged. So, after over a year, the A/C compressor is about to be connected to a belt again. Should I have the shop connect the belt or will it be fine to put it on myself and drive it in? I just paid $200 for a little pulley so I want to try and save myself some $$$$.

Any thoughts...espeacilly from Mr. Pool....lol...you probably don't remember me, but you serviced my little BMW 325i a long time ago:P

Does anyone know if the SEL received a condenser upgrade in 85-86 timeframe like the SD W126? I ask because I believe my '89 560SEL has the older style 'large tube' condenser. Not nearly as many tubes as my '85 SD's condenser.

Looks as though there was an upgrade on the gasser W126 also.

Gen I A126 830 2770, Gen II A126 830 2870.

I suspect my car has had a Gen I installed as a replacement at some time.