Yep. Deep vac was done.

The charge was 46 or 47 oz. I changed it from 42 later so you must have seen an earlier version of my post.

He used commercial flushing agent and blew it out afterwards with compressed air.

Good question about the expansion valve. I will ask him.

The aux fans are running; I think he hotwired them to make them run all the time. I suggested he use a rolled up newspaper to test the viscous fan clutch but have no feedback yet. Mine lasted 250,000 miles so I would be surprised if his is bad.

Assume there was nothing wrong with splitting the insert of the mineral, just not needed.

Thanks for the response. Will forward it to him.

PS - you will note that he followed all the same procedure using R132a (before going to R12) - deep vac, new expansion valve, etc. - everything. And it did not blow cold. Then he decided to change the Schraders and go to R12. I also have recommended that he find an AC expert now and get help before he spends more money - he is talking about buying and installing a new condensor now thinking that it might be stopped up.