A/C compressor not cycling on

[1998_K1500_Sub]

Unhook battery for five minutes se if that helps

Hook the battery back up, that will help even more.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

How does unhooking the battery recharge the system and seal the leaks?

PFM

 

[K-Man]

I want to replace all of the O-rings that I can get to, (everything but the evaporator). Can someone suggest a good kit? I removed the cycling switch and found a small o-ring that is squared? on the edges? Need to replace that one as well. I am going the route of new compressor, new accumulator and new orifice tube. What oil does it take? PAG150? Any other suggestions are appreciated!

 

[K-Man]

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

I want to replace all of the O-rings that I can get to, (everything but the evaporator).

O-ring kit from "ACDelco", others are similar.

NAPA has a nice selection of AC O-rings and valves in some trays they keep behind the counter. If you have something odd you need to replace, stop by and show them what you need; they may be able to find you a replacement part from their stash.

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

Here are recommendations from ACDelco (.pdfs attached) for compressor oil viscosity for the R4... they say PAG 150.

ACDelco also recommends regular 525 SAE mineral oil for lubricating the O-rings, I quote: "525 SAE mineral oil is ... also recommended for lubrication of R-134a O-rings." Others offer similar advice and their reasoning NOT to use PAG is because PAG is hygroscopic... it turns yuckie when exposed to moisture and it holds moisture, neither of which is desirable at a fitting; regardless, I think almost everybody uses PAG to lube the O-rings because it's on-hand. Well, almost everybody. @Schurkey and I both use Nylog Blue to lubricate the O-rings. Maybe others too. See it here:

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Search around if you want to find Nylog, there may be multiple listings on Amazon and elsewhere.

See also the other doc(s) I attached which are relevant to your project.

Almost all of these are only one or two pages, so they're easy reading.

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

I want to replace all of the O-rings that I can get to, (everything but the evaporator).

Learn from my mistakes: Before you get all jazzed-up about replacing all the O-rings (which I think is a worthy objective), you may ("may") find that some of the fittings are difficult or impossible to remove / unthread. Before you go all gang-busters into this project, you might spend an evening and simply check all the fittings to see if you can break them loose (be sure and use a backup wrench!). It will help set your expectations as to the difficulty of the project and the likelihood of completing everything you've set out to accomplish.

In one case, I had a ***** fitting that I needed to use a 6pt flare nut wrench to loosen; regular open end wrenches were starting to round the corners. The problem was I didn't have a flare nut wrench that would fit, so I had to put the project on hold for a week while I dug one up (it was some oddball size and I found it used on eBay).

Otherwise, you have my full encouragement

 

[Schurkey]

Flare nut tools--wrenches and/or crowfeet--are not merely recommended, they're essential. The tubing and the tube nuts are aluminum. Easily distorted, once distorted, ruined. And yes, the aluminum nuts sometimes corrode and seize to the aluminum tubes. It "can" be nasty.

The orifice tube is sometimes so packed with debris that it's essentially seized to the aluminum tube. There was a time--and maybe still is--where the aftermarket sold a repair kit that included a new orifice tube inside a "repair section" of aluminum tubing that would splice in place of the original tube. With luck, yours has no debris, so it'll pop right out.

I note that my '03 Trailblazer uses a different style of connector for the aluminum tubes; and fancier O-rings (that have metal reinforcements) which makes all of this enormously easier/better.

 

[K-Man]

Good recommendations guys. Like I said in the first post, the system was rebuilt 4 years ago, with condenser, compressor and orifice. I don’t believe the accumulator was changed though. The compressor didn’t grenade, it was the condenser that leaked. Could I get by with just a compressor? I know it’s hard to say, but now I’m nervous! Do I need a flush?

 

[Schurkey]

Some folks figure the orifice tube (screen) will tell you whether you need a flush. If the screen has little debris on it, you're good-to-go.

Given the expense of refrigerant, and the fact that you've got the system open already, I chose to flush even though the orifice tube screen looked pretty clean.

There's no kill like overkill. Flush the system, replace "all" the seals, new desiccant, evacuate longer than necessary. Then there's no reason it shouldn't work as good as new, for years and years.