^^That is true^^, the air for the heater and a/c is drawn in under the cowl, over the years it can and will collect leaves and other junk that gets sucked in by the fan and plugs the evaperator. To clean it out you will need to pull the fan housing out from under the dash to gain access to the evaperator, its not as hard as it looks to do, but its a time consuming job.

 

sorry buddy not myth...everybody always told me bad mileage with A/C on..and i believed em..until i realized some people on the net saying its not true..there is no difference..

filled the truck up one day and recorded my mileage for that week (driving to school and to work..around 40miles a day) got about 22mpg's out of that tank

did the same thing the next fill up..only i ran my A/C the WHOLE TIME..and i got 19.5mpg's..same gas station..even the SAME GAS( the truck didnt have to deliver any gas between my fill ups)..conditions were the same..about 90* outside..

so from experience..it does give worse mileage..at least on my truck it does..never done it on a different vehicle..

 

Oh great; I'm having the same problem with my ac on my 86 camo truck. I wonder how much a change over to a new compressor/dryer system is going to cost? Heck, if it is too much I might just take out the windows and be one with nature!!! I'll just keep a ice chest in the seat next to me at all times so I don't overheat !!!!

 

Also, make sure the shut off valve on the firewall for the heater is working properly. If it's not closing all the way, it is letting hot water travel to the heater core at the same time you're trying to cool things.

 

Ahhh, good point. I haven't seen very many older vehicles that will actually close the valve all the way from the inside lever. I always have to close mine the rest of the way from under the hood and I just don't touch the temp lever all summer.

 

before you put your top on put a piece of clear plastic where the top seats to the truck. that is if only 2 people are riding in the truck. with the plastic it will make the cab smaller so less to cool off in the summer. just a cheap easy way to keep cooler in those hot months

 

Well, I tore into the condenser bucket (for lack of a more technical term) this weekend. It sucked. Had to tear apart the dash to get in there. I found a fair amount of leaves/trash in there. Not enough to really be blocking it I don't think, but I went ahead and vaccumed it out of there. Put everything back together and I will test it out later. This weather we have been having the past couple of days is too nice and cool to put an a/c to the test. I guess if I don't feel a change I'll try to find someone that can work on an R12 unit.

 

I dident read all these threads so not sure if this was mentioned...I used to work for an HVAC company and they kept a small amount of R12 on hand for older systems that cant be upgraded. Just ask nicely and they might hook you up. They used to do it for employees and friends all the time.

 

not sure if its been covered yet but on my 96 cobra my lines are wrapped in foam. Figure this was to keep the hot air away from condensing the vapors.

 

There is a legal enviro-friendly R12a substitute that you can get here in Can. that works very well. A two can self service kit with hose/press. gauge goes for about $50cdn. It can be used to fill the system without draining off the remaining R12a in the system. Can't remember the name just now though.

 

-BTT-

Interested in knowing what that is. Trying to get a/c in my runner before gettin back to the gta.

 

Here's a link to the company's website http://www.redtek.com/home.html

You can pick it up from Can Tire for sure and a bunch of others too.

some conflicting info website video says R12 must be drained before redtek install but package info days rt is compatable with R12...
and AC pro said it would be ok to just add redtek sys. stuff... of course my coolant had leaked out so maybe that was why lol...

 

I swapped my system over to R-134. It had a leak. I changed all the O-rings & receiver and vacuumed it down for a couple of hours. Now it blows mid 40s when it's 100 outside! Works for me.

 

What did you use to apply vaccum to the system? I don't have access to an AC machine and I have yet to see a inexpensive tool to apply vaccum.

 

vac pump.rented from Autozone. I already had the manifold guages.Rented as they put a $150 deposit on my card and took it off when I brought the pump back, so no charge really.

 

You guys ever heard of ebay?I bought 2 cans of r12 for 48$ shipped to my house.A quick vac and now my toy blows ice cubes out of the vent.Make sure you get 14 oz cans,2 will fill a truck.I got 12 oz,my systems 4 oz short,but works great.Point being,r12 is cheap,works better,you dont need any cert to buy from an individual,and if you do need a an ac card,it takes about 20 minutes to get ans ASE card online.Most of the 12 is NOS before anybody starts hollerin about blackmarket purity,and there is some new production from china.