Stray Catalyst wrote:Where would you find an aftermarket compressor that would work for this? ...
Can't say for NH, but most independent vehicular A/C shops in most states have kits to mount a more efficient Sanden/Sankyo/Sanyo/etc. compressor on top of an old York or Tecumseh compressor mount. They'd also have adapters for the lines and clutches & belts. Yes, if you're going to convert to R134a refrigerant properly, you'd really need all new ("barrier") hoses for the refrigerant lines and several other new parts... Read as "expensive". NOTE: even the
new vehicles slowly leak out R134a, since the truck/car manufacturers 'cheap it' on hoses & seals, knowing the problem won't likely be discovered while the vehicle is under the 'bumper-to-bumper' portion of its warranty, i.e. It's "customer pay" work, baby.
OTOH if you use a proprietary formula hydrocarbon refrigerant [HC-12a ®, DURACOOL 12a ®, OZ-12, etc.] ..., as long as there are no leaks, you can use the rest of your system, as is. They don't have to have the expensive "barrier" hoses & are compatible with either style of A/C lubricant. Quite a few HC refrigerants show up with a Google search. DOT rules say
it's illegal for a commercial shop to fill your vehicle's older system with an HC refrigerant, but AFAIK
You can do it without a problem. Many large stationary refrigerated facilities nationwide (worldwide?) legally use HCs as their refrigerants, and at a fraction of the costs of other fancier formulas, they're easier on compressors & more efficient at cooling, too. [Some HC facts are at
http://www.es-refrigerants.com/resource ... ERANTS.pdf ]
Yes, the total of 1-4
pints of HC refrigerant in a vehicle's A/C system
is flammable, but far more impressive conflagration is readily available from the is the c.16
gallons of HCs in your bus's fuel tank [note
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 4&t=113038. So, #1: Don't cheap it; do the job right. #2: carry 2 fire extinguishers!
Don't be misled... as far as safety goes, even R134a can catch fire, bad old Freon/R-12 would burn at high temps... creating Phosgene gas (see WWII for this killer!), and almost anything with the circulating mist of lube oil under pressure will readily support combustion (ever see a leaky power steering pressure hose squirt onto a hot exhaust manifold? Potentially very ugly. Yet the DOT hasn't outlawed power steering... hmmm!).
Next boondogle: Over the next few years, R134a itself is getting thrown out! Though in finished form R134a is not a major ozone layer destroyer, the DuPont process by which it's produced is! They blow that s**t right up into the atmosphere, so there's a new replacement for that, patented by (guess who), probably more to stay ahead of the knock-offs than out of any real concern for the environment. Sounds like an 20 year-old echo of the rhetoric used to get rid of Freon R-12 (for which DuPont's patents had long expired).
[Rant... Fire the chemists... all we need are slick, well-heeled lobbyists and great lie-through-their-teeth public relations firms.. oh, and a gullible, powerless target-marketed public. Cha-ching! Cha-ching!]
If you really need or want that A/C in NH (and can still use tools), don't be talked out of it. OTOH the moose seem to live well without A/C, so... ! Enjoy.
J.R.
SoCal
