I should make it out that way saturday Vital, probably still sans AC, busy this week... she's runnin' pretty good though, passed some washingtonian slooooow driver this morning like a freakin' rocket, felt great... that never happens in the 4runner to be sure!

 

OK guys, been a little while, busy with hunting trips and some fishing along with a busy holiday season... but... I finally got around to getting the AC system buttoned back up so I will be ready for summer...

I took my truck to a local shop (begrudgingly) to do the discharge/evac and dry out the system... dropped it off this morning, should be back shortly so I can put the new compressor and new drier in along with some fresh O-rings. One of the guys at the shop is a horses be-hind and pissing me off but hopefully they don't screw anything up. they are checking for any leaks and doing the evac and once I get it back home and new stuff on today I am taking it back to let them do the recharge.

been back and forth on doing the charge myself with the cans 'o crap or letting the shop do it but I think I will just let them have at it; better equipment and experience at the shop...

engine has been running great since the original CS pulley debacle, about 1200 miles so far and all is well. I'll post up some pics of the new compressor and final outcome here shortly....

 

Red loctite only cures when confined in the absence of air between close fitting metal surfaces. (direct from MFR's website)

 

maybe so but it WAS hardened... probably would still work fine but I put some extra on there just to be safe... I'd rather have a problem getting it off then what just happened, hahaha

Got the new accumulator/drier in after cleaning at all the connections with foamy engine bright/compressed air, then tackled the compressor. kind of a pain getting in there, some not so fun angles but super easy... I don't even want to know what the shop would've charge for this...

I took the shipping plate off the top of the new compressor and dumped all the oil out into a graduated pitcher to measure the oil capacity. per techchoiceparts website, this compressor has an oil capacity of 7.75oz or 240ml, it was just a little bit low but probably from the remaining oil in the compressor so good to go. (It takes PAG 46 oil if anyone needs to know) looked good so put the original plate back on the new unit and got new O-rings on everything and put the in/out lines back on and torqued everything down. I wound up taking out and putting in the compressor from the bottom between the AC lines... Didn't quite finish getting the belts on, gotta get ready to go do our New Years stuff tonight, will finish getting the PS and AC belts on tomorrow but pretty much finished, no hurry, will take it back Sunday to have it charged up by the shop that did the evac, should be all set after that!

Got raped at the shop, charged me $30 for freon which isn't too bad but they want like $130 for 1.76hrs of labor..... labor????? the 45 minutes total it will take??? I'm going to see what the deal is with that, I dropped my truck off at 10am, drove by at 10:45 and it was still sitting there, called me and said it was done at 11:41am..... hmmmmm... I don't think it takes an hour to charge it but maybe I'm wrong, we'll see sunday... or I'm just a sucker.... Won't be going there again....

the AC button itself inside the cab broke off from driving down a bad washboarded road a while back but works fine, just doesn't stay in place, need to fix that... I'm about to order a bunch of LED lights to redo all the lights plus the ones that are burned out (2 so far) so will do it while I'm doing that plus some other add on wiring....

so... $207 in parts, $170 to the rape-garage and $7 for some PAG-46 oil = new AC again...

I couldn't get my camera to cooperate with the computer so I will have to post pics later...

 

do they make led lights that go.. in the facory stock bulb recepitcal like behind the dash and the heater/ control unit... i was just wondering..

i had recently changed out my dash lights back in oct. and son of a gun if one of them just thought it would be ok to stop working...

 

yes, www.superbrightleds.com has everything... the 194's fit right in there but I was just on another thread where somenone said that the 74's don't fit in the indicator lamps... so not sure about the little ones now...

one just burned out on the right side of my cluster, hard to see the tac and fuel gauge now at night....

 

nope, 74's are correct... for most of us, some are different...

soooo... my new AC compressor has a slightly smaller pulley than stock, took me a minute to figure that out when the idler pulley couldn't pull enough slack out of the correct size belt. now off to town to find a 1"-2" shorter belt!

 

allright, next size down in belts works good, got her all buttoned up and ready to get the AC charged up and running again tomorrow. I have the electrical harness disconnected (the one wire) so it can't come on until it's ready.

measured the pulleys, stock was approx. 1" bigger in circumferance so really only needed about a 1/2" smaller belt.

the stock belt size is 35 3/8", too loose, went down to a 34 3/8" belt and it was just big enough to fit, anything smaller wouldn't have worked except maybe the 34" but it would have the idler pulley adjustment dialed all the way in.

anyone have any thoughts on what I should do with the old compressor? Sell it? I'm thinking about buying a new magnetic switch and rebuilding it for a spare or whatever (put on my 3.4 when I swap the runner)

 

Case officially closed!!! plugged the AC connector back on and turned it on for about 10minutes, blows just as cold as it always has with no issues. bubbles in the sight glass, looks like I'm finally done with the CS pulley/AC fix for now.

A big thanks to everyone's help here on YT helping me thru this with lots of good advice from quite a few folks, this is really a super easy DIY fix guys (assuming your CS is not destroyed), if anyone who has halfway decent mechanical ability but no experience, don't worry and get under the hood. Don't even want to imagine what this would have cost me start to finish had I used a shop for the labor, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of a new engine.

I will be doing my own timing belts for sure from now on at least on these things, and I'm no mechanic for sure.

Thanks again fellas, still open to any ideas on the old compressor unit?

 

I am very happy to hear that it all worked out well for you. I know it is a serious confidence booster to know that you did the AC on your own. That sucks about the shop, but go figure, they are pissed off that you did it yourself. FYI for the price you paid for their labor and freon, you could have bought a vacuum pump, gauges (look at harbor freight) and freon for less. Anyways, I am glad to hear that it worked out.
Happy Trails!

 

WOOT! ..... Glad to hear, buddy! Enjoy it this summer! lol. My turn on this fix, ....grrr! Be sure to stop by my build thread whenever you want, ...but especially when I start the AC re-o-ring, etc. job! lol. K? Seriously, really stoked it's working out for ya.

Mark

 

Sorry to see this one. I'm late to the fix it party, but here's my gift anyway
http://www.motor.com/MAGAZINE/Articles/012007_04.html

 

Why didn't you bring it back to the shop that screwed it up int he first place?

 

i would shown the the shop forman, a brass hammer
and said fix it.. or i'll drop the hammer...

 

Thanks fellas, as always, much appreciated on your input on this whole ordeal...

I wish I had read MtGoat's article before I let a shop do my timing belt...

as for taking it back to the shop to try and get anything done, I'm not even going there... read too many other's tales of woe in trying to get anything other than court fees...

They will be reading that bulletin however to hopefully save some other poor sap like me, hahaha...

For the AC I was torn whether to buy the vacuum setup or just let the shop do it, now I realize that it really is not that difficult and I have much more interest in my truck's welfare than anyone else so in many cases I do a better job on the work on this thing than a shop... so now I've checked off AC as something I can do and not have to rely on a shop. The only things left on my list of 'take it to a shop' is windshields and alignment... auto tranny's but don't have one so good to go with my 5speeds...

The guy at the AC shop (owner) was kind of a wang but after he saw all the crap under my hood, he was all buddy buddy and wanted to BS all of a sudden....

"you do all that work yourself??"

Me: "uh, yeah, minus the headers.... and my first tune... now give me my key so I can get this thing away from here..."

Thanks YT'ers!

 

hahahaha! "give me my keys so I can get this thing away from here!" hahahaha. WOW, how I WISH I'd have learned what I know now, THEN, lol... Before the Knob I went to got a hold of my beast! lol.

Oh well, live and learn, eh?

Hey, how about you get into steering next and just totally rebuild it, install a new G-box, ....c'monnnnnnn, ...or maybe you could just come do mine, EH? HAHAHA. JK.

Best wishes on the rest, A-dawg, ...be well!

 

i need to put a powe steering gear box in my truck so bad... along with some a/c...

 

hahaha, thanks Mark... all in due time! my truck is a constant work in progress, every time I drive it I dream of all the stuff I can do but can't afford!(YET)!! there's SAS kits for our Taco's now from Addicted Offroad.... gotta knock out my 4runner first..... I really need some suspension and lockers though.... and a turbo for the Taco..... love the SC but I'm hooked on FI and need some more torque...

....and I still need a welder.... sigh......

I can't live without AC, I'm a freakin' eskimo.... if the temp is above 65' I start sweating, it's my viking blood or something.....

 

So you get the computer workign with the controller yet or what?

 

I did email split second and they sent me a troubleshoot guide which might help after reading it, I just haven't had time to sit down and play yet; busy thru this weekend but next week I hope to finally 'crack the code' and get to tuning for real. she's still running good but has the wierd idle. feels like full power from 1000rpm and up still though.

I will definitely share any knowledge I get from tuning with you vital, still have to hook up sometime shortly down the road for some tunage... I've been looking at some engine management books on Amazon also, got a couple books right now on engine rebuilding/repairing fundamentals I need to get thru first. Slowly learning this grasshopper is.... hahaha