Couple years ago I ran a can of 134a with stop leak into the Custom Cruiser. This year it needed some refrigerant.

My gages will read system pressure fine but cannot get any refrigerant thru them to the car. I guess that stop leak gummed up my charging manifold, as well as a can tap.

Anyone have ideas for cleaning the passages? Brake or electronics cleaner? or just ditch the 23-yr-old gages and get a new set?

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

See what you can't blow through first. Remember, to charge, you need to be open at the port, open at the manifold, pop the can, and back the tap back out. Backing the tap back out always gets me.

 

If your gauges are toast you can rent them at your local auto parts store.

 

Or... you can just go to Walmart and get one of these:

 

Those are nice, I like seeing my high side pressure though so I can compare it to ambient temp and know I am not going to blow my compressor up.

 

I was bored yesterday and found the old 134a gage set. Went to work on it with Brakleen and another now illegal CFC solvent. It was, however, legal when I bought it many years ago.

Boy when I sprayed in the Brakleen you never saw such fluorescent green goop as ran out of the manifold ports. Got those running clear and did the same to the hoses. Blew them out with compressed air and then gave them all another shot of solvent and air.

Other than dropping the manifold on the concrete floor and busting the low pressure valve plastic handle, looks like they're ready to go again.

I learned one thing- you run stop-leak thru yer A/C gages you should probably flush them out when you're done. Or go ahead and fix the leak properly ☺️.

 

Thanks for the update.

Same thing happened to my gauges. I loaned them to a co-worker and he made new ones out of some 1/4" aluminum plate - cut a circle, drilled a hole in the center for the screw, and voila, indestructible handles!