Hole found in A/C piping

[Jookmasta]

Ok so i just took off my mani and turbo and i got to see what was causing my A/C not to work. The main line which houses that green insert thing/hole right by the distributor seems to have a hole where you would normally plug in the a/c gauge thingy. the heat burnt off the entire fitting where you could put on the gauge thing to it. How can i fix this? can i just weld it shut or do i need to replace the line for the a/c to work? obviously all of the freon leaked out. please help. thanks.

[vancouverbc]

If all the refrigerant has escaped then air and moisture have entered the system. You would have to repair the leak and then vacuum out all the air and moisture. replace filter. You might also have to replace the refrigerant oil. you'd then have to recharge the system with refrigerant. it's a job for pro. if the leak was small and the pressure in the system was above atmosphere so that no air entered system you could just repair the leak, i think. it's not welding . just soldering with high temp solder.

[Jookmasta]

is the refrigerant oil clear and somewhat greasy? i see some leakin on my garage floor........also, how hard is it to replace that a/c line? maybe i can source one from a upick instead of trying to fix it? what would be the easier route? thanks.

[NISTECH]

Replacing the a/c lone is very easy and can be aquired in a wrecking yard. You should get a new reciever/dryer[the filter] as well and have it evacuated and recharged. If there is moisture in the system it will not function properly so the evacuation process really needs to be done. While it is under vaccum they will also be able to tell if you have any other leaks as well.

[Jookmasta]

is there any special tools i need to acquire these lines? ive never worked with the a/c stuff so any help or hints would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

[NISTECH]

nah nothing specail basic hand tools should do. best thing to do is remove your bad line before you go to the junk yard. what ever tools you use to get yours off take with you to the wrecking yard.

[vancouverbc]

fittings and tubing are cheap. you'd remove the fitting by heating up the solder or you could use tube cutters. the solder requires quite high temp so most inexperienced people will melt the tubing also. you need tubing cutters as you don't want to create burrs or deform tubing. this is not much labour for a pro. evacuation is time consuming as you have to do it several times to get vacuum. any air or moisture in system will destroy compressor. high temp soldering is a difficult skill. if you solder wrong you are going to carbonize the inside of the tubing and this carbon will damage the compressor. if the joints are swaged and fastened with nut, then you obviously don't have to worry about soldering.

[Jookmasta]

so i went to the local junkyards and upick and no luck. all they have are SOHC's. So looks like im forced to fix this line. Now i happened to have stumbled on a new fitting to replace where the other one came off. I wont lie, i am inexperienced with soldering so when you say high temp soldering, what do you u need and would a normal soldering thing work?

[vancouverbc]

You'd have to buy silver solder or silfoss. Sliver solder melts at lower temp so you can only use it in the part of the system that does not get hot ie low side if i remember right. You have to get the copper cherry hot before silfoss solder melts. A butane torch might be hot enough but an oxy/acet torch is much easier. You'd also have to replace the filter. it's only 10 minutes labour for someone who knows what they are doing. you need to cut the tubing expertly or you will deform the tube, leave a burr on the inside which will impede flow of refrig. you will also likely leave copper fragments in the tubing which is a no no. it takes quite a while to learn how to silfoss solder right. i don't think you are saving much by doing the soldering yourself. your soldering efforts will likely introduce more contaminants to system. any air, moisture, carbon, metal filings, etc is death sentence for compressor once it is operating .

Modified by vancouverbc at 6:40 AM 6/28/2005
Modified by vancouverbc at 6:41 AM 6/28/2005

[Jookmasta]

so it looks like im going to go the other route of just replacing it. unfortunately, i dont have a wrench big enough to get around the fitting to take off the line. how big of wrench did yall use and did you have room to make turns with it?