[celticape]

hi!

i have scanned through many a AC posts and have not been able to come up with a solution.

situation :

when I swapped out my transmission a few months back. i also did the heater core, and a few other things. My AC has never worked since. the compressor is not kicking on.

I figured i may have moved one of the lines too far and sprung a leak., and lost all of the R22 refrigerant. i hooked up gauges and quickly realized that while trying to add more R22 that it would not accept any. i "accidentally" opened a valve on the AC gauges and freon a blast of sweet smelling gas came out....i'm guessing that is R22 refrigerant. also im guessing that the gauges are worthless if the compressor is not kicking on.

i bypassed the frost switch and the trinary switch and the compressor still is not kicking on . I thought i heard the relay behind the speedo cluster click, when I turned the key to the run position, but now im not sure if that is a clicking noise or not.

.there is no voltage at the wire connecting to the compressor with the key in the on position and the AC turned on, but when I apply 12 volts directly to the compressor the clutch does indeed engage.

....so does bypassing the frost switch and the trinary switch eliminate the possibility that those two as the cause for no voltage to compressor?

is there anything else I can do before taking the speedo cluster off to mess with relay, and why would anything I had done while doing heater core affect the relay?

 

[Richard2]

Which car are we talking about L or LS. You need to connect you gage to the low pressure fitting along the right fender with the compressor off and see if there is any refrigerant in the system.

If you applied 12V red wire to the clutch wire, you should hear the compressor clutch click in. If you did it correctly and no click, you probably have a bad clutch coil.

 

[Del]

Also, the 91-93 used R12, the 94-95 used 134a.

The a/c clutch fuse in the fuse box may be kaput, but one cause of that is a shorted out a/c clutch as Richard suggested. Happened to the one in my 91S.

I agree, please always state which model 164 you enjoy but having trouble with so we can better determine (actually, guess at, lol) the fault.

 

[celticape]

sorry..its the 1995 LS. i checked the fuse, it is good.

. the clutch engaged when i applied 12 volts to it.it clicked..i saw it engage.... when i hooked up the gauges, the low pressure reading was super high. i cant remember exactly but almost to the top of the gauge..it seemed super high and I accredited that to the fact that the compressor clutch was not on.. there is definitely refrigerant in the system as some escaped from the manifold of the gauges ...also it would not accept any when i tried to put some in

also not sure where i got r22 from ...lol.. its definitely r 134a

 

[celticape]

sorry..its the 1995 LS. i checked the fuse, it is good.

. the clutch engaged when i applied 12 volts to it.it clicked..i saw it engage.... when i hooked up the gauges, the low pressure reading was super high. i cant remember exactly but almost to the top of the gauge... there is definitely refrigerant in the system as some escaped from the manifold of the gauges ...also it would not accept any when i tried to put some in

also not sure where i got r22 from ...lol.. its definitely r 134a

hmmm...now that I think of it, is there more than one fuse for the AC system? one for the compressor clutch and another for the overall system?? seems like i only found one and it was fine.

 

[Richard2]

When the clutch isn't engaged, the low pressure will be high. It drops to around 45 when the system is operation.

 

[Alfisto Steve]

I have a 1300 appointment today at base hobby shop to get A/C on BB2 evacuated and recharged to 80% with R134a. It has never cooled as good as BB1 which has same conversion package.

Will be interesting to see how much is in system when they suck it out and pull a vacumn.

 

[celticape]

the importance of closing connectors all the way

well, apparently the big round connector behind the false firewall has to be closed all the way for the compressor to kick on...oops.

i was digging around back there trying to trace the frost switch wires and lo and behold out of the corner of my eye...i spies a big round connector that is kind of ****ed sideways a smidge. i undid it from the fastener and closed it all the way, put it back in its spot fastened it in , turned on car, turned on AC......Glory , Glory, Hallelujah!! a wonderful click coming from the compressor clutch engaging..followed shortly there after by a lovely stream of cold air coming out of the vents!! Yippee!!! take that Texas summer, im ready!

also the oil pressure wire goes into that connector, so now i have functional oil pressure gauge. :smile2:

haha.. killed 2 birds with one stone....Good alfa day..off to get tire and alignment!

 

[Alfisto Steve]

Well, things went well at hobby shop. We sucked out and measured the R134a left in system. Had about 1.5 lbs so little low. The R12 system called for 44oz (2.75lbs).

We did the 80% of 44 oz math for R134a refill amount and come up with about 36 oz.

Pulled 30 inches of vacumn for about 30 minutes and refilled system. We got about 33 psi on low side and with cooling fan running about 175-200 on high side with 85F ambient temp so almost a summmer like day here for a change (I broke a sweat mowing lawn today).

Forgot to shut off my manual pek coolant valve to heater core so only got about 50F out of dash. Shut it off when I got home and then got about 45F out of dash idling in driveway. Hope to get down to 40F while driving. Still don't think BB2 will cool like BB1 does but life goes on just the same.