Compressor Leaking

[MasterTec]

My A/C compressor is leaking. Has anyone had any luck resealing/rebuilding these or should I just invest the extra money on a new one?

Anything special I should look out for if I rebuild this? Part numbers for seals?

Thanks!

[georgeb]

Get one from site member.

[Movin]

Gasket set http://www.acsource.com/gasketsetkt-...sd-708709.aspx

New compressor, Go to Ranshu.com and look this up

14-2722NC
COMPRESSOR
W/ CLUTCH; NEW
10P13A
SINGLE GROOVE CLUTCH

Reman or used I wouldn't recommend..but some work out okay.

[MasterTec]

Are those paper gaskets? Heck I could make those myself I bet. The whole point of my Festy is cheap transportation so I really don't look forward to shelling out $100 on a new compressor!

After seeing that I think I'm just going to take mine apart and make new gaskets for it myself and see what happens.

Wish me luck!

[MasterTec]

I found the problem. Two of the four O-Rings between the adapter plate (where the lines install) and the compressor housing were torn. My guess is that they reacted to the R134a and swelled up.

I also disassembled the compressor itself. The front seal was dry as a bone! The housing has two large O-Rings - one at the front and one at the rear. I removed these, cleaned the corrosion from the grooves, applied a little gasket sealer (probably a no-no but I was extra careful to keep it from getting into the compressor itself) and reused the two large O-Rings and the front seal.

I reassembled it with new adapter plate O-Rings and new O-Rings on the lines and so far all is well!

[Movin]

Newer ones use orings, I wonder if you had a reman already?
Be sure to put that same amount of oil that came out back in.

[MasterTec]

It's all good.. I already had WAY too much oil in it to begin with as I had already recharged it several times:

1> When my dad still owned it and his air crapped out I threw on some R134a fittings and charged it with refrigerant he bought at Autozone which had oil already in it. This lasted three days.

2> When the high side fitting valve was leaking, again with refrigerant he bought with oil in it. I don't know how long this lasted as he never told me when the air stopped working. I'm assuming it got him through the rest of the summer but who knows.

3> A couple years later when I acquired the car. Charged it up with no extra oil to make sure it still worked. This lasted about a week.

4> I resealed the R134A fittings and put new schrader valves in them and charged it again. I added a few ounces of oil with fluorescent dye in it. This lasted about a month.

5> I still couldn't find any real evidence of a leak. I put new o-rings at the lines where they install at the Receiver/Drier as there was a lot of corrosion there. The compressor was covered in engine oil from when the VC gasket was puking so it was difficult to pinpoint any refrigerant leaks there as a result. At this point I recharged it yet again and added some more oil that has stopleak in it. This lasted less than a week.

6> I recharged it when I resealed the compressor. I didn't bother adding any more oil as I figure there's already plenty in the drier, condenser, evaporator, etc... Since I'm being too cheap to replace the drier and too lazy to bother flushing anything out I figure I'd just roll with it and see what happens.

It now blows colder than I ever remember and the compressor is nice and quiet! I had to turn the blower down to low yesterday afternoon because it was too cold... and this is coming from a guy who can't stand the heat on a 101 degree day!

Usually a day or two after charging it I'd start hearing the "swishing" sound at the expansion valve that indicates the refrigerant getting low. It's been a couple days now and it's still ice cold and no swishing noises. I think it's finally fixed!

I'm really surprised considering that the condenser is all bent up from when my dad hit a deer. The car also still has all of the original A/C parts (minus the O-rings that I've replaced and of course the belt).. even the drier is original!