Fw: A/C Compressor not coming on - Help with Ch. 17 diag

[Phil Rose]

At 11:17 AM -0700 8/28/04, Jeremy Palenchar wrote:
>You were absolutely right.
>
>I was mis-reading the LED readout.

That's very easy to do--I had to look at it (turned "on" and "off") 
several times to figure out the LED locations.



>The gauge/can setup I bought from the local auto parts store was complete
>junk. I am going to try to get my money back.
>
>Any suggestions on a gauge/refill system that actually works?

I recently used the Interdynamics "EZ COOL" package (about $29 at 
BJ's), which contains a gauge, the R134 adapters and 3 cans of R134. 
The adapters were --I thought--entirely redundant since my system had 
been converted to R134 last summer. However it turns out that the 
shop had done an "unconventional" conversion. They had installed a 
high-pressure R134 adapter, but there was no R134 adapter on the 
low-pressure port at the compressor. I enquired as to why and was 
told that they had to remove the low-pressure switch (near the 
evaporator) and then carry out the charging operation from there (and 
they reinstalled the switch, of course). They claimed that they 
always do this since they cannot fit their equipment into the narrow 
space at the front of the compressor.  OK, but IMO they still should 
have installed an adapter on the compressor--just to assure that the 
the R134 conversion would be clearly evident.

Anyway, I was able to install my low-pressure adapter at the 
compressor fitting and had no trouble with access for the EZCOOL 
apparatus. I used nearly two full cans of R134 to get the pressure to 
about 45 psi. Of course all this is done with the low-pressure switch 
jumpered and the compressor running.

Phil
-- 

Phil Rose
Rochester, NY
mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net