Re: Between a rock & a hard place (long)

[harrison <hsapir@multiverse.com>]

Poke a hole in your condensor or an a/c line and go to another shop and tell
them you think the car leaks freon.

harrison

Larry Mittell wrote:

> OK, List! Ready to handle a problem not involving Torsens, arachnids, or
> the Dark Side? Not having heard  objections, I'll proceed. I added a 1989
> 200TQW (Yikes! Torsen! Hide the women and children!) to my stable of
> eccentric, semi-mobile vehicles a while back. I'm deliriously happy with it
> except for one minor niggle: the air conditioner is a little anemic.
>
> I left the little dear at a well-regarded local radiator/air conditioning
> shop to have the system evacuated, leak-checked, and recharged. Some hours
> later, I was told that nothing could be done with it. It seems I'm firmly
> mired in the land of Catch-22. The shop's analyzer claims the system
> contains a mixture of R-12, R-22, and R-134a refrigerants. The proprietor
> says the system therefore can't be evacuated, because that would
> contaminate his equipment, costing him some tens of thousands of dollars.
> By the same token, the system can't legally be vented to atmosphere,
> because that would do unspeakable things to the "ozone layer" (quotes used
> because there isn't any such thing, but that's another thread).
>
> So, here I am, a man without a country, so to speak. I'm a certified
> criminal, no matter what I do. The EPA folks I so admire have decreed that
> the only legal refrigerants for mobile use are pure R-12 or pure R-134a, so
> I'm breaking the law everytime I drive the beast. Since nobody will
> evacuate the a/c system for fear of contamination and the system can't be
> vented to atmosphere, the only alternative is to push the car over a cliff
> and walk away.  But no doubt there's a law against that. Oh, what tangled
> webs we weave when first we practice to be politically and environmentally
> correct!
>
> Any BTDTs that can save my soul from eternal damnation? I'd really like to
> stay within the law, even if it's stupid. Otherwise, I suppose that engine
> vibration will eventually loosen a fitting and the planet will
> instantaneously become uninhabitable. Small loss; I always wanted to be an
> astronaut anyway.
>
> TIA,
> Larry Mittell