2005 E350 Club Wagon with factory rear A/C & Heat. I do not need or want the rear A/C, don't want the aggravation of the rear lines or any connection between the compressor and that evaporator to give me future problems. This van is going from a people hauler to a work only vehicle so no A/C comfort needed for my tools and supplies in the back. Heat will remain, there will be a partition between the front seats and the cargo area.

Looking for parts needed to remove the refrigerant circuit from the A/C loop up front. Any specific part numbers or where to begin looking would be highly appreciated.

FWIW the system if working flawlessly right now, the vehicle mileage a whopping 140K.

Thanks in advance Y'all!

 

If I were doing it, I'd look up the van on rockauto, and start comparing parts with and without the rear A/C.

I'm assuming your van has a orifice tube in the inlet line of the front evaporator, and an accumulator/drier with the CPS sticking on it after the front evaporator. So the CPS (Cycling Pressure Switch) turns on/off the compressor clutch.

I assume adding rear A/C to that it would use a TXV back at the rear evap's inlet, to throttle the refrigerant flow into the rear evap depending on the temperature of the outbound gas from the rear evap.

Then all that would be needed to complete the dual evap refrigerant circuit would be the two "Tee" functions needed.
- One tee in the liquid line coming from the condenser, to split refrigerant flow into two, to front evap and rear evap.
- Another tee to combine the suction flow returning from the front evap with the flow returning from the rear evap, and present it to the inlet of the accumulator/drier (assuming the rear evap's output does go through the accumulator/drier, and not straight into the suction line to compressor. Having it go through the accumulator/drier first would guarantee that the compressor couldn't be slugged by any liquid in the rear suction line).

That's what I would expect, anyway. So since you have the dual A/C setup, and can look at it, then can then look at rockauto's single A/C parts to see what dual parts need to be replaced with single parts.

The Motorcraft YF43 looks like the hose assembly that has the "Tee" functions in it for the dual. Would not be surprised if the accumulator/drier is different between the two applications, like hose fitting types, etc., so maybe one acc/dr fits the dual's set of hoses, and the other acc/dr fits the single set. You would want to replace a acc/dr anyway, for age and opening up the system while converting.

A totally different idea, would be to disconnect the rear-related hoses/tubings from the tee assemblies, and connect matching connectors that have welded-closed tubing ends on them to the tees. Just blocking off the rear take-offs from the main system. 4Seasons makes an infinite variety of open stubs with different size tubing and connectors on them, would need to find the right matching parts, and get someone to weld them closed. Likely aluminum. 4Seasons has an online catalog, and often the specific 4 Seasons parts can be ordered up by O'Reilly Auto, etc., but you have to give them the 4Seasons numbers.

 

Superb & very excellent points all around in your ideas Torky2----thanks so much for sharing! I built commercial-size computer room A/C systems for Liebert Corp back before 1984 so you're spot on about the automotive system components.

My original thought was to simply replace high side and suction lines with Ford parts for the front only system and recharge with the appropriate refrigerant. (This E350 has 140K original miles, fleet maintained and records showing the A/C has been "serviced" at least every other year since 2005)

I did find these block off parts: https://www.autocoolingsolutions.com...r-AC-block-off They seem to be super simple, installation nothing more than removing the rear evaporator before threading them onto the Tee's for those lines.

Evac, recharge with front-only refrigerant amount and forever forget that rear system leaks at some point.

I hope to have this done yet this year but as we're heading into heating season A/C is low priority. Time to get this done the only real hold up at the moment as we're heading into what is my glass business's busy time.

I'll update this as things proceed---could be useful to others with those rear heating/cooling systems.

 

Time for a small update---found what seems to be an excellent and purpose-built kit for this very use, eliminating rear factory A/C.

The company known as Auto Cooling Solutions have these parts available: https://www.autocoolingsolutions.com...r-AC-block-off fitting my specific application. Additionally they have other kits and parts for a wide range of vehicle makes and models.

If eliminating or repairing your rear A/C without breaking the bank this outfit might deserve a look.

HTH