'72 Travelall A/C

O

ojh

Member
Hey michael, been a long time. I am working on a '72 Travelall 1010, when it came in there were a list of ailments and he said the a/c blew the hose off on the way to my shop. It had -an fittings, I made a new (aeroquip)hose and took it next door for charging. When they started adding referigerant the compressor started bucking and shaking, pressure went sky high. I brought it back here and started pressure testing, the condensor is near stopped up - I can hardly get air thru it at all. I am thinking that that is why the hose blew off, it was the condensor supply hose from the compressor. The compressor seems newish, other parts of the systen has been tinkered with and I get the feeling I am the last in a long line of people to mess with this. I want to get it right and not dinker around. What would you do? I have read thru this section and have respect for your expertise and experience.
Thanks, oj
 
I've been on the road for going on a month oj, but I'll be back home tomorrow night I hope!

A "plugged" condenser is certainly a normal situation regarding a vehicle that has had it's hvac system butchered over the years. And even worse, the long periods of inactivity regarding these vehicles leads to major issues with corrosion and internal damage due to moisture infiltration which in turn creates an acidic environment inside the plumbing loop.

The oem condenser on that vehicle is a serpentine design which uses a "seven pass" tube set. That means there are seven tiny orifices inside the tube through which the refrigerant flows. And over time, they simply plug and block, just like the tubes on any radiator.

So condenser replacement is certainly the fix. There is no way to "repair" a condenser with internal restriction and no one would ever spend the time to do so with the fairly low cost of a replacement.

I'd definitely replace the receiver/drier now also. That is a regular maintenance item that never gets serviced either and it will also be full of mung. Cut it open and see what's in the bottom!
 
I gathered from some of your other posts that you guys were coming up with a replacement system - is it available?
If not, can you advise what compressor to go with and what do I do about those -an fittings, I haven't dug into the evaporator but I assume that the hoses going to it for the compressor/drier have -an fittings on both ends.
Thanks, oj
 
All the oem fittings on these systems are plain old 45* flares. No an stuff was ever used oem.

Ihon has the information regarding the best sanden or seltec/tama compressor to use (either work extremely well!). We also have the mounts for the conversion in stock. It's best to call the shop directly for that stuff. The compressors can be set up with fittings for either flare or "o" ring connections.

I'll be doing a write-up on the compressor conversion myself in the near future, the 8,000 mile trip I'm completing has had my old york compressor running the whole time, but it's sounding pretty poor right now.
 
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