My 1972 F250 needs A/C repair. Compressor, (R12 to R134A) Conversion kit, fan motor and the controls are hard to slide, who knows what else. Previous owner said it just needed a new compressor. My question is should I attempt repairs on the factory A/C or replace the whole thing with a new system? My mechanic says to repair and convert. I can replace the compressor and fan myself, maybe the controls if I can find one. Repair is obviously a bit cheaper, a new system is about $1,200 not counting labor ripping out and reinstalling. Any opinions?
Thanks

 

Factory A/C unit or add-on air?

 

The controls are an easy fix. Pull the panel out and squirt some chain lube into the cables. Work them back and forth, squirt some more lube, work them until they slide easily. Don't convert to R134. The requisite condenser really doesn't fit in our trucks. Use the refrigerant sold by Enviro-safe. I use it in all 3 of my trucks with the OEM equipment. It is the same mixture that I have been using since the late 80's. There are fan replacements all over eBay and Amazon and they are easy to replace once the A/C unit is out. Which you want to do in order to really clean the insides.
I bought one of the Factory units last year and completely rebuilt it. I even used some fiberglass to rebuild the inlet flange where it had been broken.

 

Factory A/C.

 

The two levers ride on plastic bushings. When these break, the levers flop around. There is no fix, as the bushings were only available with the control panel.

C8TZ-19980-B .. A/C/Heater Control Panel / Obsolete

1968/72 F100/350 with factory installed integral A/C

No Ford dealer or obsolete parts vendor has any.

 

Yep. They all look the same. My door is in a lot better shape than yours but your wood grain looks nicer.
Easy to fix and easy to clean.
Mine had years of packrat droppings and road crap lodged in the evaporator fins. I cleaned everything and lubed the few places that have moving parts.

 

More than likely it is just the cables needing some lubricant. CYRETIRED2 said that the controls were hard to slide not that they flopped around.
I found some Teflon pieces that fit the bill at Ace Hardware.
Ford doesn't have a lot of parts but with a modicum of ingenuity anything can be repaired. Many times to far better standards than the factory bean-counters were willing to pay for.

 

I'll give it a shot, actually I sprayed electric contact cleaner on the controls themselves and it did improve with just that, won't hurt to try it have to pull it apart anyway. Didn't know they had a substitute for r12. I'm leaning toward my mechanic after your post. Thanks alot

 

That Enviro-safe is still r134 with profane mixture which contaminates you whole AC system.

For Enviro-safe refrigerant to be install it suppose to Evacuate the system first then install the r134 adapters fitting over the r12 fitting then install Enviro-safe.

An AC Shops first checks a auto AC system for any contaminates r22, propane, an other refrigerants and if found to be they won't service it as they don't want to contaminate any of there equipment.

The R134 causes the system to run a a higher high side pressure in most cases 50-75+ psi an will cause the OEM AC york pump to screw up the reed valve in the compressor
Plus will blow warm air in stop n go driving unless electric fans our installed.

It does help to move the AC condensor within 3/8" of the radiator use a fan shroud with a smaller water pump pulley of 6.5/8" will reduce the warm air city driving.

Orich

 

R12 is still being use an installed by Lic. tech shops. But most shops will turn you down an want to install r134 as they make more money. They don't want to buy any r12 because how long will be siting on the shelves before they use it again.

Check on C/List ebay an you can get your own Lic. online to buy it yourself.
Orich

 

Well the biggest draw back on a conversion to R-134a is that R-134a has smaller molecule's than R12 and susceptible to leaks on the old r12 systems and I believe the orifice needs to be changed along with the dryer. Anyway that is what was explained to me.

 

No ORICH it is not. It is a mix of propane and Iso-Butane. There cannot be a mix of R-134a and the Iso-Butane/Propane in their products. Mineral oil is not miscible in R-134a and PAG is not miscible in Iso-Butane/Propane. According to democrat liberal wacko federal law it is illegal to sell any R-12 replacement so Enviro-Safe does *not* sell any. *But* the stuff that they sell works great in an R-12 system. One uses the original R-12 mineral oil lubricant rather than the PAG crap for the R-134a.
I've used it for several years in my *OEM* R-12 system. Long before the liberals decided to provide a monopoly for their big campaign donor, DuPont.
The cans use a R-134A canister fitting. I modified the hose on a R-134a recharge setup from Autozone so that it fits directly on my R-12 fittings. But one can either buy, or as I found, find a adapter fitting in the junkyard. Lots of people had a shop mechanic convert their systems to R-134a. Can you say *BIG BUCKS*?
I do find that the Enviro-Safe compound has too high of a percentage of Iso-Butane and this keeps the pressure curve lower than optimal. I made an adapter so that I can bleed in a bit more Propane to *raise* the pressure. This provides more cooling.

(I'm wondering how R22 would get into a R-12 system.)

Unless the vehicle AC system has R-134a fittings installed I would presume it to be running R-12 if it runs at all. At $30+ a pound not too many people have operating R-12 systems even in Tucson and Phoenix.
I drained my compressor, rebuilt it, ran new hoses, filled the compressor with mineral oil, ran a vacuum for 24 hours, Closed the system to check leak-down, bled in a can of Stop-Leak, then filled it with a can of the Enviro-Safe stuff, bled in maybe an ounce of Propane, and it has been working good and cold for over 2 years.
I ran my '67 XR-7 on, essentially, the same stuff from about 1989 until 2005 and never experienced a problem.

 

Guys I'm so confused now! 😉

 

I have the same factory system in my '71 CS/250. I purchased a 2nd unit, with some help from members here, to rebuild mine. After a lot of consideration, I'm 99% sure I'm going to ditch the old and go new. Probably Classic Auto Air after doing the research. Their plumbing through the fender liner really stinks though.

Reasons for me.
1. Takes up a LOT less room.
2. Factory heater core tends to leak over time via the elbows due to poor quality heater cores and vibration and is a HUGE PITA to change out. Been there-done that about 4 times now.
3. Will drop the weight of the pump. Darn thing is heavy.
4. Their unit will work with my Factory AC controls.
5. IF something happens with the charge, I don't get robbed at gunpoint for r12.
6. My fan/radiator are new 4 core Aluminum and swapped to electric while doing an engine rebuild.

Just my 5 cents worth..
Dan

 

What Milliam and Orich both said has it's merits. A propane and iso-butane mixture will work just fine. in the older systems. But the chance of a fire is a boat-load higher than R12 or R134A. R134A can not move as much heat (AKA cool) as R12 (and definentialy not as much as propane), and the molacules in R134A are clustered tighter together (smaller) than R12. The R134A will leak through the older type R12 hoses. So that's why if you switch from R12 over to R134A, you better change hoses too. Also the oil for the compressor is different for the R12 & R134A. The dryer must be changed when converting from R12 to R134A too. I think the comment about R22 was a typo. R22 runs at a much higher pressure than a truck/car system could handle for any amount of time. And R22 is going to be replaced too by R410A. If I had AC, I would opt for R134A, new compressor, dryer, and hoses.