7-sins

I have had, to what I believe is a leak, for sometime now. I found some R12 bottles in the basement (the price tag on them is $1.49 hehehe) Anyway, I was looking to fill my A/C back up but wanted to find this leak. Do you guys think that I could buy a leak kit (fix what is leaking) then a refill hose to get this thing working again? Also where is the valve, where I would tap into, located? My manual is missing the A/C section

duckyjp

Yo chris. Looks like we've finally gotten our a/c problems taken care of. I found my leak and replaced a worn hose while i was at it. I have been asking the same question about recharging the a/c but either no one knows how to do it or no one wants to take the time to explain it. I have the r134a retrofit so we are slightly different situations i guess. Everyone just told me to pay to have it done so that there wouldn't be any problems and that it is cheap anyway. I would like to save a little money plus have the pride of working on my car myself and do it right the first time. I would also liket o be able to do it on future cars myself because i know it isn't hard to do but i don't want to do it wrong and damage my system. Like you, I already have the refrigerant to put in the car but i need answers about evacuating the system, checking the oil in the compressor, etc... and putting the new refrigerant in. If you need some ideas about where to check for a leak pm me. I talked to Dave at KD to find common leak sources and he gave me some good ideas.

P.S. Do you know of any FD get togethers for the summer in our area? I would definately come down from philly for something. Last time was a blast. Hope we can be riding a little cooler this summer than last!

7-sins

yo man, thanks for the response.

About the meets, I went to the "Dont Be A Rikki" meeting a few weekends ago. Ryan and Dave are the ones who got it together down in Waldorf MD. I am surprised you didn't see the thread in the NE Forum. Brian (RX-Midget) was up there too. Anyway we are having another one May 25th closer to Baltimore. You should stop by, here is the thread.... https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=74711 . Also this sunday if your free I am trying to get some of the RX-7 heads down to manassas as you see on the thread.

forcefed1

ok for leaks some times you can find then just by looking it'll look like someone sprayed WD-40 near one of the lines.
this will get you close to your leak. if you haven't used the A/C in a while there may not be any residue left from the leak. then I suggest you take it to find the leek. they can locate it and you can fix it.

as for filling it you'll need to pull a vacume on the entire system to get any moisture out. After you pull a vac, you want to tap into the LOW side of the system Side before the compressor. start the engine... turn on the AC and crack open a can of refrigerant slowly holding the can upside down allow the system to syphen out the fluid from the can. look through the sight glass in your drier. when you stop seeing bubbles the system is full.

that's it
you'll notice at first the compressor will not be on (to low pressure) then it should flip on and cycle as you feed it refrigerant. when it gets to pressure it'll flip off and as the pressure of teh high pressure side falls, it'll flip back on to make more pressure.
should be rather uniform.
if you notice anything that seems wrong.... like the compressor only staies on for 2 seconds at a time, I suggest you stop....let a pro look at it.
I don't know how much r-12 the system takes if you find that out lemme know.

another option..... take your can's of r-12 to a garage and sit there and let them fill it.... then you'll only owe them for time not the 90$ a LB for the r-12.

If you'll have any left, SELL IT TO ME I need to do this myself

7-sins

Thanks for the detailed reply. I have noticed the residue on my undercarriage guard. It was right around the compressor on the driver side... maybe a line coming in or out of the compressor. The funny thing is before I bought the car the A/C wasn't working so the prev owner went to Mazda before I came to pick it up, got it refilled and checked for leaks, at my expense. Well I got the car back home and the A/C was gone, damn Mazda.

I will give a few places around here a call to check on how much they would charge for their time.

For reference where are the valves located in the lines that I would tap into?

EugeneChoe

haha wassup yall. ive still got that ac problem too. we should get together to fix all of our ac probs. haha. im serious. how much is it to do the retrofit. see you guys soon

eugene

DamonB

The are by the passenger shock tower, you'll see two aluminum lines with caps screwed on over the schrader valves.

As far as your leak, make sure the residue from the compressor isn't from the power steering pump above it. Most every one I have seen weeps just enough fluid from the short rubber hose to collect dirt and make a mess.

7-sins

Thanks for the help DamonB.

Eugene and Ducky both you guys should come out to manassas this sunday. I've got bout 5 rx heads so far, could use two more. PM me if you guys are interested and I can help you out with directions.

wonder1and

Hey,
Well I just got my A/C back online last friday. If your system is empty I suggest changing the 0-rings that are on the compressor itself and also the ones that you can easily find (like where the lines attach to the condenser, dryer, lines in the engine bay) This will help ensure the freon stays where its supposed to be. Also take a look at your condeser and see if it looks like its got any large rock holes. If you see some take it to a radiator shop and have them look at it I had two holes in mine and got it welded up for 30 something bucks. By the way the small o-rings run about 1.25 a piece. the big ones will prolbably be about 2 bucks. To get to the lines on the A/C compressor you might want to disconnect the power steering pump since it makes accessing the connections alot easier. I am not to sure how much 134 went into my system but I know it pretty much had to be exact. 7-sins you might want to convert it to 134 and sell the r-12 maybe make some $ for doing this. If you fill it yourself and end up putting too much in use a long phillipshead screwdriver, place it in the port thats on the thick line, don't push on it just yet use a pair of channel locks or large visegrips to keep from being sprayed ahole lot w/ the freon and i also suggest using gloves since freon causes frostbite and one weird high if you inhale a bust of it on accedent but I am in no way condoning releasing harmful gasses into the atmosphere. So anyway any more questions? And no I can't tell you exactly how much freon goes into the system. From what I have learned from all this work... get it to hold pressure then bring it to a shop after already taking a stab at how much is in there and have the shop check the pressure and go from there.
Good luck!
Ryker