A/C hose connector woes

Kneale Brownson knotnook at traverse.com
Wed Jul 14 16:37:40 EDT 2004


I was going to have my new condenser connected to the A/C system and have
the system recharged with its new receiver/drier and restrictor valves in
place.  The A/C guy tried to screw the big, long, expensive Audi hose to
the condenser and found that it wouldn't tighten the seal in place before
it stopped turning easily.  Upon inspection, he sees the threads in the
connector have some of their aluminum rearranged, apparently from when I
struggled to disengage it from the old condenser.  So he said he couldn't
proceed because if there was a leak, the hose connector might have damaged
the condenser threads and he didn't want to buy me a new condenser.

Anyway, I took the car home and started scraping gently with some picks in
the threads.  I've got them pretty much cleaned out except there's one
section of one thread maybe half an inch long that the thread is missing.
It'll screw onto the condenser smoothly now beyond the point where the
thread material is damaged, but then it still gets too hard to turn by hand
before the seal is pressed into the fitting on the condenser.  I didn't try
to help it turn further with a wrench.  Does anyone know if "normal"
connection of that hose to the condenser requires use of a wrench before
the seal is snugged to the fitting?

I don't want to buy a $200 + Audi hose just because the aluminum nut on the
end is bunged up some.  Is there any kind of (cheap) intermediate part I
could thread the hose onto that would have a new good nut I could then
thread onto the condenser?  


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