Lost and gone forever

[Carl Wheeler]

I have been reading the threads on here and really feel at home now. I just have to pass this dumb trick on. Was changing the timing belt on my brother's pick-up. In order to get the timing cover off, the air conditioner compressor had to be removed. Now folks I have bled many air conditioning systems but for some reason on this one, I happened to find a plug on the back of the compressor that I should have known was the "High" side. Rather than looking for the "Lo" side port, I unscrued the plug and bang, it shot out from between my fingers and disappeared somewhere in the yard. I heard it hit the concrete floor, then the underside of the truck. My brother was not happy that he had to drive from Orlando to Ft.Lauderdale without AC. I told him to be happy that he didn't have to pay to have the timing belt replaced by a garage. He still complained. Needless to say, I will always look for the Lo side of an AC system in the future. Carl

[sixchows]

Carl
Why open the system? Just tie the compressor back out of the way with hoses still connected.

[Ingersoll444]

Ya thats what I have always tryed to do. Granted sometimes you cant, but most of the time you can just unbolt, and move.

BTW I feel your pain. YEARS ago I was topping up a system in an old Chevy with one of those little cans. Well I hooked to the high insted of the low. POW!!!!!!!!!!! can exploded!!!!

[Bountyhunter]

I have not done a lot of automobile air conditioners because most of my work involved residential A/C and refrigerators.

Over the past few years I have gotten referrals from friends who send other friends to me with old cars that use R12 refrigerant.

I have about 27 lbs. of virgin capillary quality R12 left and I ain't getting anymore because my knees have put me out of the business.

The last friend of a friend whose car I filled paid $60.00 a pound or portion thereof even though I told him he should switch to the new stuff that can be used in R12 systems. He told me the new stuff does not put out as cold an air as R12 and he wanted the "good stuff".

The thing of it is, I always use a manifold when installing refrigerant. I use the shrader valve fitting on the low side and although it has never happened to me, you could easily tell what side you are on BEFORE you go hooking up cans of refrigerant to the system.

I know manifolds with hoses and gauges sell for $50.00 to $250.00, but it is still cheaper than losing fingers or your sight from an exploding can of refrigerant.

Those of you that still have those little cans of R12, I would strongly suggest you never connect them with those little adapter hoses for a quicky refill but that you should always connect them through a manifold setup that will allow you to read the pressure you are connecting to before routing your refrigerant cans to your A/C system.

Let's be careful out there!

Bountyhunter