How about you both win! But, +1 or hell +100 to Knuckle - temporarily got it blowing cold!
So, my blockage, errr, probably just torn up grommets, made my manifold gauge quite working yesterday and probably wasn't allowing refrigerant to charge. Today, took Knuckle's approach and dumpted 4-5 cans of refrigerant with a manual fill tube I've got. Boom, pump starts kicking in. Turn it off, hear a hiss, damn IT! I have a damn leak, and it's the one damn bolt I swear it would happen on.
BTW, can't find any good manifold gauge sets locally - the first one I got two years ago leaked from the gauges right off the bat, this new set leaks after about a day of use. lame. I guess I should have expected to just invest in a legit set.
Down below I took a picture of my leak:
This bolt, like most of the larger ones, is corroded, rusted, or both. So much, that it will not tighten down - really, I could wrench it but the other side is the aluminum expansion valve tube and it begins to strip out... So, after about an hour of trying to get to this BS spot in the back, I triple down on grommets just to see if it'll get cold. Sure enough it gets cold, but only kind of holds.
So, I'm in the market for some custom AC lines. I think I'm going to build an extension down off the expansion valve tube about 4-5 inches down so that I can really torque down the one I'm pointing to below. I'll have to get a little wire brush and clean out the threads or something. Or, could go all out and cut off the rubber hose and rebuild an end that'll hook up better. Haven't done this before but willing to give it a shot.
if anyone knows of any good websites for the tools to order, request specific hoses, or make some lines please let me know.
Thanks. I'm happy just to know i'm not crazy, and this thing is going to happen!
You must be registered for see images attach