A/C Help Please

[SHOgun89]

Hey everybody,

I'm pretty new to the forum, and I'm looking forward to receive some of your wisdom. I'm buying an 89 SHO. It has 160,000 miles, but is in great running order. The owner produced all the papers for all the work and maintanence that has been done, and I'm getting it for $1100. Clutch was replaced, transmission was redone, the 60k job was also done, oil changes every 3k miles, bearing was replaced, basically everything that could be a concern was taken care of. I'm happy. The only questionable thing is the A/C, and the owner said it may just need some fluid, since he never put any in once it stopped working.

Before I think about replacing my A/C system, should I try converting R12 to R134? Or should I use this R12 equivalent called Freeze 12? I really don't know what to do...please help.

Thanks a whole lot,
George

P.S. -- if the conversion is better...would something like this work?
Ebay Kit 1
or
Ebay Kit 2

 

[Rob94]

Freeze 12 is junk. You first must decide if a 16 yr old car is worth putting the money into a creature comfort system. If you feel it is worth the money, then convert it to R134a. Doing a search will net you a ton of information on this procedure.

 

[SonicRiot]

For the conversion:

-Accumulator (desecant bag needs to be replaced. ditch the whole thing)
-Fixed orifice tube
-all new O-rings (gaskets)
-fittings to adapt the R-12 valves to the R-134a valves

You cannot do this yourself unless you have an A/C machine. After replacing these parts, you must put the system under vaccuum to remove moisture and contaminants and to make sure the system doesn't leak.

SO! My reccomendation is to take the car to a shop and have them evacuate the remaining R-12. Buy a conversion kit and install it yourself. You can get away with not changing the accumulator/desecant, but you may have a lessend performance from your A/C.

When you are done installing all of the parts, bring it back to the shop to have the system vaccuumed, leak tested (see if vaccuum holds), and filled with R-123a. This should save you some cash.

Good luck.