This may not be much help but according to past owneres the A/C had not worked in 12 years........I charged it and did not retrofit it and It works great now.....

 

The bottle you see on the pass side is the VIR system. Serves the same purpose as drier and accumulator. They are available from Zip products here on the forum e-store for 109.00. I just bought one a few weeks back. My compressor and lines were also bad. Total cost was close to 1,000 for all work to be done. I had it changed to R134a and it cools just fine now. It doesn't cause frost on the vents or make one need to wear a jacket inside the car, but it keeps it cool inside. Over the winter, I plan on checking out all the duct work and diverter doors inside the system to be sure they're all working and sealed now that I have cold air.

Good luck, and thank you for being there to protect us.
Jeff

 

Rick -
If anything is covered in oily goo, it's a good indication that you have a leak. You certainly want to identify and correct any leaks before you go charging the system with expensive R12. Here's what I do, and this works well:

Normally, you do not want to get air into the system, since air contains moisture, and moisture will saturate your receiver/drier. But you're going to replace the receiver/drier anyway (even as a normal precaution and system maintenance), so air and moisture is not of temporary concern.

Using a standard A/C gauge set, you can take a compressed air fitting (for your compressor air hose) and screw it into ther center fitting on the gauge set. With this in place, you can plug your compressed air hose right onto the gauge set and you can pressurize the A/C with plain ol' shop air. Run the pressure up to 80 lbs or so and then close off the fill valves to lock the pressure into the A/C System. Now, go around the system and squirt soapy water (or you can buy a specialized leak check solution which is basically soapy water) on every fitting, every joint, and every area suspect of leaking. The bubbling solution will indicate a leak. Use the solution in a spray bottle and spray it onto your condenser, too: The condenser frequently gets damaged by rocks, or breaks apart at solder joints from vehicle vibration. Make sure you thoroughly spray the area with the oily goo....

Once you've identified and corrected the leaks, pressurize the system again and note the pressure and the air temperature. Let the car sit with the gauges on it and the air pressure in it for a day or two. Then re-check the pressure when the air temperature is the same as it was when you pressurized it. There should be no decay in pressure. If you loose any pressure at all, you better keep checking for leaks, casue there's no point in charging a leaky system.

Also, with pressure on the system, your pressure switches should allow the compressor clutch to kick in: you should be anble to verify all aspects of your electrical system once you have air pressure on the system (don't start the engine and engage the compressor with air in it - just do an electrical check with ignition "on" but the engine itself not running). Once you've assured yourself that the electrical controls are functioning and that the system is leak-free, replace the receiver-drier with a fresh one, evacuate the system, and charge 'er up for a great, reliable system.

 

Well first off, you take care of yourself, then business.....

as for the A/C.... the easy/cheap thing to do is fashion an adaptor out of cheap brass fittings from a supply house...to put compressed air into your system in place of expensive freon......then check for leaks with an electronic detector...
at that point it should be obvious....hopefully, and then also replace all the O rings, all the old oils, and put in new oil and R134 and have done with it...

GENE

 

How do you remove all the old oil from your compresser and VIR valve?
Thanks