The air conditioner in my 1995 4.0 l Aerostar is loose and hangs down about an inch. This has caused one of the lines to develop a hole where it rubbed against the hood hinge. Does anyone know what I would have to take off to get to the bolts holding the unit in place. How many bolts are there? Also, I have some aluminum repair rods (kind of like welding rods) that are used with a propane torch to fix aluminum. Is there any danger in trying this on the A/C line? It is a very small pinhole in the line.

 

What came loose the accumulator? The evaporator housing?

Where is the hole one of the hoses leaving the accumulator or the evaporator?

I believe your referring to brazing rods they may work if the hole is very small and I guess its worth a shot. But make sure that the system is completely discharged prior to attempting this since R-134 is flammable at certain oxygen concentrations.

 

Hi Eric:

Welcome to our FTE forum

Please be very very careful when you deal with R-134a. Like Khan (a.k.a. Bear River) said, it's flammable at high temperature. Also, at high temperature, you might end up with cyanide gas, which is very deadly. I am going from memory here and I might be wrong, so do an online search for the MSDS of R-134 and read it carefully.

 

only work on a/c outside and then use a large fan to blow out engine compartment after evaucating or filling a system.

do not have the garage door open while working on a/c. some of the refrigerant components are heavier than air and can settle in unwanted areas mixing with unwanted paint, gas and chemical fumes in garage
also, toxic chemicals can be formed in a failed overheated compressor

a fast leak can freeze fingers, eyes and body parts causing damage

always use an electronic leak detector in the passenger compartment near the evaporator after service to check for any leaks caused by service work
or take to an a/c shop and pay them to use their tester in passenger compartment

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg349.pdf
http://www.aircondition.com/wwwboard/alternative/messages/1995.html
http://www.autofrost.com/134afatal.txt

 

The whole thing is loose from the dash wall. My shop manual seems to show five bolts holding it in place, but I haven't looked to see how I can get to them from inside the vehicle, thought I'd see if anyone else has done this first. The hole is in the evaporator outlet tube (between evaporator and accumulator. Would love to just drop a little glue on it and be done, but I'm not sure that would work if the aluminum is expanding and contracting too much. Also, I do not know if I can get to it with a torch anyway, so I may have to take the whole unit out. Is this difficult? I'll be working outside, there's too much junk in my garage.

 

Eric,

It might be more feasible to just get a new evaporator.

I've removed it before. The evaporator box is composed of two pieces that are held together with about a dozen hex head screws around the perimeter. It will be easier to do this with all the parts around it cleared out first; notably, the engine air cleaner box and the heater motor. Obviously, you need the tool to disconnect the slip-fit connections of the AC lines. The accumulator is attached with a couple of screws to the box, so it can come right off with the evaporator core.

 

Be sure to remove the upper and lower air housing first. (What on the Aero can you work on without removing it ?)

The biggest annoyance for me was removing that lower clamp for the accumulator that bolt is ridiculously unaccessable I had to use my mini socket wrench and I still had maneuverability problems. Remove the lower accumulator clamp to the evap liquid line as well its secured with 1 bolt. Use the quick disconnects to remove the accumulator to evap line.

Once the accumulator is out remove all of the bolts around the core and pull out the blower and evap cover together thats what I did on my 3.0. Use a mini socket with an extension and they are all pretty easy to remove. Then remove the evap liquid line.

I bought my evaporator from Drivewire it was only $94 bucks OEM (Rock Auto charges $218 for the same evap OEM). Plus if your evap is original you may find that like on mine the brazing between the coils is beginning to corrode. Which will lead to leaks later.

Be sure to replace the accumulator was well.

As for the leaning evap housing remove all of the aforementioned parts so you can see what actually happened to cause it to loosen. The housing could be cracked.

The housing is secured with 2 bolts to the firewall.

 

genuine Motorcraft Ford approved and certified parts are always more expensive than knockoff Chinese imports of unknown quality

 

just my 2 cents about that......my mother had a wreck in her 90 Merc Grand Marquis about 2 years ago..the passenger rear door had to be replaced. The work was done by the dealer that sold us the car new and the door was replaced with OEM Merc (Ford) parts (i.e. door, hardware, etc.).....the door handles have a chrome trim plate....three of them are absolutely shiny and show no marks. The fourth one has small rust dots (about pin head size) all over it. I'll let you guess which one it is..........

 

How about a story to the contrary this happened to me just today. I was replacing my PS Pump I bought from Napa it was an OEM ford remanufactured by some company. I also bought a new pulley Dorman aftermarket since mine had a few chips in it. I go to press it on and I'm struggling I am putting way too much torque on it and it isn't making any notable progress.

So I get out my micrometer and measure the old and new pump shafts diameter they were ok. So I measure the inner diameter of the aftermarket pulley the diameter is smaller then the OEM Fords pulley's diameter.

So I order a new pulley from Ford and guess what it pressed on easy no bulging muscles or steroids required.

This blew alot of my time and from now on I am only going with OEM on parts like this especially when your working with tight tolerances.

Oh yeah and that piece o crap pulley is plastic with a steel shaft insert so a strap wrench (not a chain wrench) is a must for holding it while turning the presser screw. Unless you have bionic vice grip hands that is ?

I disagree Ford used Visteon to manufacture their A/C parts and just slapped some stickers on them and imprinted their part number. The manufacturer of those parts is Visteon so you get Ford parts without the Ford price.

And besides doesn't everything come from China?

Anyhow lets not hijack the thread .

 

Thanks for the help. It was easier than I thought to take the evap out, so I'll probably just get a new one. Are there any good spring-lock diconnecting tools out there? The one I have worked, but it took about an hour just to open two couplings. Also, I was able to reach the bolts holding the top of the unit to the dash wall just by removing the glovebox door. There were no nuts on the two bolts, must have come completely off over the years. I have other problems that need fixed, but I'll post a different thread for those. Agian, thanks.

 

I used the plastic quick disconnect tools from Autozone and they worked nicely on my Aero. If the fittings were a pain to remove then the garter (retaining) springs inside the cage on the fitting is probably rusty. They are replacable if they are in bad shape.

Be sure to replace the O-Rings on the lines entering the accumulator and the accumulator itself and coat the O-Rings with refrigerant oil so they don't bind on reinstallation. Most auto parts stores carry the O-Rings in different sizes they're green which means they're designed to work with R-134.

The fittings simply press together continue pressing until you hear a click and your done. Its hard to believe they won't leak but they don't.

 

Actually, those slip fit couplings do leak a lot. I've fought with that on my 1990 Aero. Since I have dual hvacs, I have what appears to be 3 times as many fittings to leak from. I think I finally got them all fixed last summer.

The problem is that they need physical support. You can get those clamps that go around the fittings to prevent the two parts from jiggling relative to each other.

The most effective spring lock release tools I've used were the cheapest; those pliable plastic things that look like little top hats without the tops, and a split to allow them to be opened up and slipped around the tubing. They're small enough to get into the tightest spaces.

 

So I get out my micrometer and measure the old and new pump shafts diameter they were ok. So I measure the inner diameter of the aftermarket pulley the diameter is smaller then the OEM Fords pulley's diameter.

So I order a new pulley from Ford and guess what it pressed on easy no bulging muscles or steroids required.
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Had the same problem. My pulley was pressed easily, when I heated it to red..... How will I remove it to replace pump..... Especially taking into account, that I have PS pump from Suburban.

 

Well since the pulley is plastic you could bust it into pieces to remove the pump. Take a pry bar or large chisel and place it behind the pump mount and give it a big pull. The plastic will break to pieces. I had to do this on a buddies car when his pulley was badly siezed to the shaft. Even my 200+ friend who had sheared tempered steel bolts loosening things for me couldn't budge it. Of course the pump was junk too I wouldn't do this on a good pump.