Bo,

Can you find a sight glass? I have never had to do anything with the air conditioner on my 124 car, so I don't even know where it is. I would look behind both headlights looking for it. If it has a sight glass, you will need to charge until the glass shows clear with no bubbles moving through it.

If you can't add enough refrigerant to clear the glass, you need to find a buddy with guages.

I think you're in better shape than you think. I still wish you would blow that charge, draw a vacuum then charge it. You apparently have all the necessary ingredients, a running compressor, r134 fittings, and apparently no significant leaks.

The 10 second delay after engine start is by design. It is so that the engine has plenty of time to build oil pressure before loading it.

There is another very real reason for drawing a vacuum. It serves to remove moisture from the system. Any moisture left in the system combines with elements in the refrigerant and produces an acid that will eat a hole through system components from the inside out. This phenomenon is much worse with r134 than with r12.

Given a vacuum pump, manifold guages and a canister of r134 or can tap with individual cans of 134, would not be a big deal to evacuate and charge. It would also give you an opportunity to put the correct oil in the system. The mineral oil used with the r12 will not correctly combine and circulate with the r134 which, of course, results in inadequate compressor lubrication.

If that car was in my shop, it would only take some ester oil, about 3 cans of r134 and about an hour for me to have it evacuated and charged, although I would prefer to evacuate it overnight to remove as much moisture from the system as possible.

Sorry for the sermon. As you can tell, by necessity, we probably have more experience with air conditioning in Texas than does the average Joe in Michigan. Of course, I'm sure that heating systems are a little different situation.

Good luck,