[s-cars] AC low side recharge adapter

[Kent McLean]

Aaron Ryba wrote:
> Like others have mentioned I took off the low pressure switch (F 73) located in
the right
> plenum and planned on filling her up there however it seems like the threaded male connection 
> with the schrader valve there is a metric 10 mm thread size which won't work with anything 
> I can get at Autozone or Advance Auto parts. I am trying to avoid spending $100 bucks on the 
> high end manifold gage set or paying a shop $120 to fix it for me.

I'm almost in the same boat.  With 3 Audis with weak or no AC, I thought
I'd be better off investing in the equipment and doing it myself. I bought
the not-quite high-end manifold gage set ($60 at Robbins, a supplier to
mechanics in S. NH, not the $39 set at the local national consumer chain.
Plus another $30 in the R134a-specific hoses.). I bought the R134a adapters.
I haven't gotten around to actually doing the conversion(s) yet.  But my
understanding so far is that the gage sets needs to tap into both the high-
and low-pressure sides of the system, so you still need to have access to
a low-pressure side valve.

My am also under the impression is that the valve on the compressor is meant
to drain the oil from the compressor, but as it is on the low-pressure side,
-- and here I'm not 100% sure/convinced -- it can be used to recharge the
system. I'll leave it to someone with more experience to confirm or reject
that idea.

-- 
Kent McLean
'91 200 TQA #1, for sale
'91 200 TQA #2, no name yet
'94 100 S Avant, "Moody"
'89 200 TQ, "Bad Puppy", up in smoke