jag1886

Took my 65 in to the shop last Monday and had it converted back to R12, they cleaned all the lines, changed the oil in the compressor, installed a new receiver dryer, changed all the O-rings and evacuated and recharged it.
This thing is like a refrigerator now can't believe what a difference it made, I love old car air conditioners.

roomer

Thinking of doing the same to my 72. If you don't mind telling what did it cost?

jag1886

A lot! $800 but it should last for years again.

svnt442

It's not the refrigerant that made it colder (well sort of), but the design of the system that it was being used in. R134A is a smaller molecule than R12 and when a system designed for R12 is charged with R134A the refrigerant doesn't expand at the proper rate due to the size or the orifice tube being larger for the R12 it was designed to use.

If it has been converted properly and had the orifice tube replaced with one designed to work with R134A then you would have never of had a problem.

MDchanic

Sorry.

R-134a is a molecule with two carbon atoms attached to each other, with four fluorines and two hydrogens attached to them.
Its diameter is 5.24Å.

R-12, with only one carbon, two fluorines, and two chlorines is smaller.
Its diameter is 5.09Å.

R-12 weighs more at 120.91, versus R-134 at 102.03, so R-12 is heavier (because those chlorines are heavier than those hydrogens), but that has nothing to do with what you're saying.

- Eric

navvet

Next year that is my project for my 64 88. I had the system preasure checked and it is pretty good. It needed a recharge with R-12. So some how I found two cans of the R-12. ( i cannot tell you how, it is classified!!!) I told my son to take the two cans out of the car...HE FORGOT!!!! Well a day at 90 deg. and BOOM!!!!!! Both cans blew up and discharged in the trunk of my car. To say I was @#$%^ mad is an understatement!
OK,enough sounding off. Question: Can your local repair shop that work on todays A/C handle the repiars or do I go to shop specializing in old cars. Oh yes at this very moment it is 98 deg. and dew point is 83 deg!!!!!!

svnt442

Well that's interesting. That's what I was taught and I stand corrected. So it has more to do with the weight of the molecules than the size of them...interesting.

Lady72nRob71

Geez, now i am leaning towards using R12 again...............

jag1886

Any good Radiator/Air shop thats been around for years should be able to take care of your car and they have R12 in stock, it's not as hard to get as I was led to believe. Do what I did I always as the local Hot Rod restoration place who they recommend, they no the best places that no old cars.

jag1886

I know that's why I had it changed back.

DeltaDevil88

WTF did you have a dealership do the work? I'm sorry but 800 is just plain rediculous I could have that done here for 100-150 bucks.

Speaking of A/C though I do need to pic up a couple cans of r12 but they go for good money.

jag1886

I suppose you have a multi thousand dollar evacuation machine, test gauges and all the specialty tools in your garage. I believe that when it come to things like the air conditioning system let the experts do it and besides my wife paid for because she's the one that wanted it to work.
A good shop charges $60 just to hook up the gauges to tell whats going on. I suppose you could get some hack a an emission test stand to do it for $100 but good luck with that.

gearheads78

Let us know who that is so we can stay away. Unless its a buddy deal doing most of the work for free no reputable shop will do that much work for 150.00 or anywhere close to it.

toro68

My old man has been in the automotive a/c business since 1964 (in Maine).
$800 bucks for a recharge? You got taken for a ride!

Lady72nRob71

Not a recharge but a conversion back to R12.

R12 is selling here for 55 a pound, so there is 220 for Freon alone. My local shop estimates 125 for labor to evac, leak test, and charge. Not too bad.

Flushing and changing parts adds up more labor and parts charges. Those cheapo O-rings take a while to replace. I could see 500 bare minimum for a job like this.

Longhorncutlass

Actually, $800 is about right. I just had my entire '87 Supreme A/C system replaced, including the compressor, and re-charged with R12 last week for $1,000. Had an experienced a/c guy do the work and there's nothing like have a professional who knows what he's doing repair/replace something! Mine was more because he also repaired the blend door that controls the airflow as mine was not working right.

My a/c guy recommended I stay with R12 refrigerant even though he was going to replace the whole a/c system anyway. I was willing to convert it to R134A since it seemed a good time to do so, but he said stay with R12 so that's what I did. The system freezes me out!

Way back in May, 1990, I had an '84 Buick Lesabre with the same Olds 307 motor and same Harrison R4 a/c compressor. It went out then and it was $500 at that time to have the whole a/c system replaced!

jag1886

It's not a recharge, the shop disassembled the air conditioning system cleaned all the old oil out of everything (evaporator, condenser, hoses, valves), serviced the compressor, installed a new receiver dryer and all new O-Rings and then recharged it, it takes most of a day to do that. That's what you get for $800.

navvet

On the subject of A/C I think we all need to cool off!!!!

66-3X2 442

I've been told for years that a 134A conversion in a R12 system if done correctly works just as good. Well,I've never seen a 134A conversion work as well as R12. Going down the road,it might keep you cool,@ an idle,forget it. I know somebody is going to come back and tell me I'm full of it,OK by me. I've got about 30#'s of R12 stockpiled and I'm using it. Nothing better than a old R12 system with an A6 compressor hitting on all cylinders.

My442

Just picked up 4 cans of R12 for $80

MDchanic

Sweet score!

Wanna make a quick $20?

- Eric

71 Cutlass

My switch over to R134a has been great. Sometimes I have to turn it down a notch in the front seat b/c my kids complain they are too cold. Not sure why others are so warm using the same stuff. Also, I think a lot of this debate would just go away if the amount of air being pushed out of the vents was stronger. New cars these days send air storming out of the vents. The small A/C rotating assembly in our older cars just cannot compare to modern cars. If it could, everyone would be satisfied with either type of refrigerant.

Lady72nRob71

My freezer seems more like a bank vault, now...

Did you use the stock condenser and poa?

DeltaDevil88

My mechanic is no shade tree hack job or "jiffy lube tech"

The guy does have a full time job but M-Sat 4:30pm-10:00 has a garage is his back yard with 1000's of dollars of mechanic equipment and actually does have all the A/C equipment.

He use to work for a christian based auto shop in DFW full time but retired from the FT auto buisness and focused on his now FT job.

He is ASE certified and a great mechanic

he charges labor $35/hr and can do whatever you need I have card if you guys need he is based in Allen TX.