You can get the dye either way. Just like the refrigerant oil can be bought either way also.

When you pull a vacuum, initially you will have a lot of flow. That is the only time it will pull a lot of oil or anything else out of the system. But that lasts only for about 1/2 a minute or so. After that, there is not much flow, so not much chance to pull dye or oil out. Yes, it can pull some oil out, but not much.

 

Well...., I started out this morning with 100% confidence that I would have the leak found within a few minutes and be gathering up whatever I needed to put things back to rights.

I have put the day in out there.

I have refilled my quart-sized soapy water bottle at least five times.

The air-compressor on my truck has ran most of the day.

Not finding anything easy, I done the dreaded task of removing the grille = not at all the straight-forward task on a plain old truck; my truck has a huge welded steel bumper/grille-guard with head-light surrounds and if I had it to do over I would move it out away from the grille another few inches.

I did manage to get things turned just right and got the grille out of the way.

High-powered flash-light in hand, I just begged for bubbles to show up somewhere and all I accomplished was to empty the soap bottle again.

I dreaded it like the plague; but, I removed those impossible to get at screws and that one big long one that requires laying back the carpet and removing that shield under the glove-box, and found two more screws after I thought I had them all and almost never got them out; but, she finally came loose and I now have the evaporator cover laying on the back of the truck.

I have sprayed and sprayed and searched and searched and not seen a single bubble anywhere on or around the evaporator.

There is most definitely a healthy leak somewhere as, I can shoot it up to 90-PSI, close the valve, and watch the needle steadily drop.

I quit to feed before dark, about a thirty minute task, and left it hanging with 65-psi; I came back and it was down to 20-psi.

I have thoroughly concentrated on every piece, part, and particle of the compressor and have squirted pints down between the clutch and housing and nary a bubble.

I keep remembering that after I added the two cans a few days ago and didn't drive it for several days and then hopped in and cranked up the A/C and it seems like I remember a quaire smell coming from the A/C vents for a few minutes.

That evaporator is thick; and, if it were leaking on the side that I cannot see, maybe it wouldn't make bubbles where I could see them.

The evaporator was installed new, along with a new condenser, June-2013 --- or was it --- I found records of a new condenser and accumulator, plus an O-Ring assortment, a case of 12 cans R134a, and two new 12-inch condenser fans, all dated June-2013 --- but no record of any Evaporator; if the Evaporator was not replaced when the Condenser was, then it is original from 1985.

Should I remove the evaporator, plug one side, and put it in the horse trough while pressurizing it with air and watch for bubbles ?

I don't like to disturb those connections if the leak isn't there, but I am about at my wit's end.

 

You can swing the evaporator loose from the case without disturbing any connections. Leave the receiver/dryer attached and swing them out as a unit. I think you have to remove the big clamp on the R/D.

Also check for oil stains under the hood above the compressor. IIRC, you can't get soapy water down by the shaft seal, as it is hidden by the compressor clutch and pulley. But if leaking, you will see oily crud underneath the hood in that area.

One last suggestion: Get a Steelman Engine Ear, an electronic stethoscope:

https://steelmantools.com/products/e...ar-stethoscope

They make another version with small Walkman style headphones, but you want the version with big earpieces to help block ambient noise. The microphone is HIGHLY directional and will let you HEAR a leak. Seems far-fetched, but is true. I had a condenser leak on another vehicle, but even the soapy water trick didn't work as the spray wasn't getting in between the fins. Engine off, I snaked the microphone in there and could hear the leak whistling! Saved me a lot of aggravation, knowing I had found the source before digging in for the repair.

 

NOTE: I just now edited my last post to reflect that, although I thought I installed a new Evaporator with the new Condenser in 2013, I am not finding any record of it's purchase with all the other invoices I found; so, it is possibly/probably the 1985 original Evaporator ----- but I would have sworn I replaced it as well --- maybe I will never know.

 

I had a good sized leak on my wife's car, I had to get her out there to find it, my hearing is not that great anymore.

I do not know what your test setup looks like, but make sure if you are shutting a valve and then waiting for a pressure drop, to test your test equipment for bubbles also after the valve. Nothing more frustrating to find your test equipment is leaking worse than the system is.

You might also want to pump the system up and then unplug the tester at the port, and then spray the schrader port with soap. Sometimes they will not leak, and you fill it up with refrigerant and it's all gone a day later. Come to find out the schrader valve is where the leak is,, and leaks when you unplug your gauges.

 

This is good advice to check the integrity of your test equipment. However, I cannot support your assertion that nothing is more frustrating than to find it leaking.

What about discovering the sewer line has come disconnected in your crawl space? Or you rack up an $80,000 medical bill not covered by insurance while on vacation in Mexico, and are being held in jail until paid in full? Those are just two quick hypothetical examples. I can go on, but you already knew that…

All seriousness aside: The bubble check method has its limitations, like any test. It won’t always detect severe leaks. The test depends on a soapy film being able to bridge the leak before forming bubbles. If the leak is strong enough to immediately blow away the liquid, bubbles will not form. Works great on small, slow leaks, but not always so with the big ones.

 

I wore my Walker Game Ear Elite all day yesterday for just that reason.

I had it on Turbo Boost and the volume Up four beeps from default; it took it a minute to quit squeeling after I bumped up the volume.

I am used to being outside and the only things I hear are the neighbor's army of lawn-and-garden machines that he constantly runs two-at-a-time and the other neighbor's Michigan Loader and the constant dump-truck tailgates slamming behind me at the rock pile.

I put the Walker in my ear and it was like I had been parachuted into the Amazon jungles; I hadn't heard birds chirping in years; curiously, for a couple hours at noon, I kept hearing this hoot owl off in the distance --- in daytime.

As I sit here typing this, without the Walker, all I hear is the constant crickets singing in my skull that I have been hearing since I was six years old --- they never stop --- they are always there --- somebody told me it was probably tinitis or somesuch.

As if I didn't have enough problems, the wife violently and loudly jarred me out of my sleep to inform me that there was a huge leak under the kitchen sink and then she promptly took off for church and left me with it -- that's what church people do.

After my day yesterday, I felt like five people had been taking turns running over me with sheep's-foot packers all night long.

After removing two pickup loads of soaking wet odds and ends, I laid under there with my spotlight and discovered that a a hole was apparently eaten through the thick Culligan filter housing, like the water just ate a hole in it; I shut off the cold water to that sink and we will just use Hot until I get the A/C fixed.

 

Immediately above the joint between clutch and compressor, there is a dark stripe of grime about 1-1/2" wide and maybe a foot long.

The engine turns clock-wise and therefore the compressor turns clockwise.

Above the 10:30 position, the grime is a wider, almost circular spot of about 3-inch diameter, quickly tapering to the 1-1/2" stripe; and, at about 1:00, it quickly tapers to a neatly cropped 1/2-inch.

The stripe is as neat as if the edges had been masked off and the stripe painted on; it is not spread around nor splattered around.

It is not necessarily sticky and not glopping up and drippy, but comes off black when I rub across it with a finger.

When I ease the hood down over the compressor while shining my light under there, this stripe is exactly over the hair-line gap between compressor and clutch.

The outsides of the compressor are sticky with a very black oily film; I had initially thought "it's a diesel; diesels are grimy"; however,on close examination, components in very close proximity are clean enough to eat off of = very clean to the touch = I can't even smear any filth off them.

Only the compressor housing is black and sticky under there.

I am going to flip out the Evaporator as suggested and test it thoroughly while I am in that deep; but, if I don't find anything there, I am suspecting the shaft seal.

Can I replace this seal ? --- I have completely disassembled and successfully rebuilt numerous Bosch injector pumps, so something like that is not beyond my capabilities providing I am not just spinning my wheels.



Whatever the problem and wherever the leak, it will take me two hard days to put things back to like they were before I raised the hood; I hate always having to work outside in the gravel with Kentucky meth-heads lurking in the bushes just waiting for me to run inside after something.

 

You can replace the seal, if you can find the parts to do it. You will find certain things are hard to rebuild because you can't get parts. But I have done it before, it's just a ceramic seal just like on a industrial style water pump.

First thing you need to do after you get it off is to drain the oil out of it. You will need a tool to remove the clutch. You can rent this at the autoparts store. If you have a lathe you can make your own. Then you just mark the case and take it apart. This is also when you have to figure out what oil you have, or get the stuff to flush the system and change it over. I get the impression while ester oil is ok and works well for drop in conversions, that PAG is a better oil. You can research this yourself.

 

I am almost certain it is PAG oil.

The guy that rebuilt the system and changed it over to R134a about 35-years ago was, and still is, an A/C professional and I doubt he used a kit of any kind.

I will call him up and see what he says about the oil; his mind is like a bear trap; he will remember every detail..

I am fairly certain I flushed everything in 2013 and that partial bottle of PAG oil sort of makes me believe more so that is what is in there.

Of course, there wasn't much left to flush with a new condenser and accumulator and the line from compressor to condenser also new.

 

Which compressor do you have? The Sanden style is shaped like a barrel, with the pulley on the end. The York style looks more like a lawnmower engine, with the pulley on the side of the square crankcase.

 

Not a York; FS6 I think it is; lays down like a barrel.

I just a while ago figured out that "Self Sealing" on these Walmart cans of R134a means my tried and true can piercer is not going to work; so, $10.69 later, I have a five-piece set on the way that includes the can-tap for these silly EPA cans.

It is not obvious that these cans are different; on the back in writing so small that I had to use the glass, in the middle of two pages worth of information, is "This is a self-sealing can"

One would think such vital information would have been prominent on the front of the can and a big red decal over the nipple stating such and the top of the can painted red.

What would have happened if I put my regular tap on one of these and screwed that needle down ?

 

They work with my regular old tap. But you do have to fiddle with it a little bit. If you screw the tap all the way in, it will slow or stop the flow of refrigerant just like the old cans. And if you bring the needle all the way out, it will also slow or stop the flow, this is the "self sealing feature". So when you use the old style piercing valves, you have to be somewhere in the middle of it's travel for full flow.

 

Like Dave said, it kinda sorta works if you back the needle out partially, but it was still aggravating and slow.

Considering manufacturers are never going back to the old style cans, you may as well get the right tool. See post #36 here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post21051250

 

I took the belt off the compressor --- consider this is on an inline 6-cylinder Cummins where the compressor is about fifty-times easier to access than on the old V-8 6.9 --- I can wiggle the pulley like a wheel-bearing in need of half-a-turn on the nut --- well..., maybe 1/4-turn.

Should I be able to wiggle it at all ?

I mean, it don't flop around and rattle; but, I can wiggle it a wee bit.