A guy at autozone said all I need to do is take the old valve off and put a new one on, then I can use the new D.I.Y. home recharge kits, has anyone else done this?

 

my dad done it to the 93 z28 cavalier he had a few years ago and it worked

i have been considering the same thing.... altho its going to have to wait until i get a Tahoe or Yukon :P

 

Your not serious are you?
I take it you are talking about a suicide kit.
It may cool some but not for long if you do not blow a hose while using the kit.
If you are talking about R134a its molecules are smaller and it will find holes that were not there before with R12.

 

I converted to 134A on my 84 tbird and my 93 mustang. The tbird worked fine and still had pressure in it many years later when I junked it. I have to put a couple cans in my mustang every spring but lasts the whole summer and works fine. It's been 5 or 6 years now for the mustang.

 

FAMOUS LAST WORDS!!!!!

There is more to it than that, first the oils are NOT compatible, and you can not get all the old oil out unless you change the accumulator/filter dryer.. I believe it was mineral oils in the R12 systems, and Ester oil in the R134a. Freon R12 and R134a are NOT compatible, so all the contents need to be purged and preferably flushed.... Some systems require an orifice tube change to get the system to work correctly..

If you don't want to bother with doing it correctly, just throw some freeze 12 in there and call it a day...

 

well, thats why I was asking instead of just doing it. I'm looking for the right answers and how to do it the right way, what do I need to fix it, I'd realy like to have it working again. Not so much for me, but I have a 2 yr old and a pitbull, niether of them do well in extreme heat. it gets a little hard to breath in S.E. ohio when the heat meets the humidity. lol

Can they fix it at a dealership? how much, roughly, should it cost me? will I have to completely replace all the old hoses such?

 

the dealership can do it, but you will pay alot of $$$$. you wont haft to change out any lines, but i would recommend getting the orfice tube change.with you having r12 you cant just release it into the atmosphere, unlike r134a. when i did my a/c in the car i ended up putting a new liquid line with the orfice tube already in it, accumlator, o rings on the lines i took off, and you will need a vacuum pump a good set on manifold gauges and some freon and a oil charge.

 

to do it yourself, figure around $500.
to have the dealer or an ac shop do it, figure on spending around $1000 to $1500

 

exactly. i live here in arizona with temps getting to 125 degrees. did a conversion on my wifes 70 mustang and it did all right below 90 degrees, but yes the pressure was a lot higher. got by for a couple years then did a full conversion, condenser, compressor, dryer, and hoses, all R134. now i only have to top it off once a year and it does fine, even in 125 degrees. the problem with r134 is it runs higher pressure and is smaller than R12. a small leak with R12 is a major leak with r134. besides your compressor will not handle it for long. i know that when my 90 goes ill have to convert to r134 and it will cost a small fortune, compressor, hose and condenser. what was good with my old mustang is that they make all the R134 hoses, condenser and compressor to be a direct replacement. ill have to fab my own condenser brackets and have hoses made. if you live where temps only get to 90 then you might be alright.

 

I will agree with most of the warnings already stated in the previous replies. It is not a simple task to convert to R-134a. There are a few who say they have done the cheap and dirty method and gotten away with it but I would never recommend going that route on any vehicle you plan to keep.

The first thing to do is check your system for any leaks. Get it pumped down and see how long it holds a vacuum. If I have a system that has any type of charge I will turn it on for a minute or two then use a sniffer to pinpoint any leaks under pressure. That way I know what areas to repair before pumping down. Once you have the leaks repaired then it is time decide if you want to convert or stay with R-12. It's still out there. After the price gouging several years ago you can find it for a reasonable price.

Many of the R-12 drop-in replacements work very well. As one other reply noted the vent temperatures and pressures are not very good when trying to use R-134a in a system designed for R-12. You will need a better condenser to match the performance of a factory R-134a system. Then you have the issue of the smaller molecules and non-barrier hoses....

 

I can't see the justification in spending that much money to convert an old truck for air conditioning.

 

but i did love the autozone bashing!

 

a very good alternative to converting to R134-A is using freeze-12 like someone else mentioned.
i have used it in a few older vehicles and it workes just as good as R-12 without and modifications to the system.

 

I use freeze-12 in all of my older trucks and RV's.

 

I dunno my uncle's truck lost all it's r12 and it cost to much to get more so he just put in r134 and it worked the whole time till he parked it. I did the same thing mine had been dry for years and i put the new stuff in and it worked till i realized dad had unplugged the compressor and i plugged it back in an found it out was locked up(dad never told me) so i dunno about all that not compatible and needing to change over parts. i'd try to just put r134 in there and if it dont work nothing ventured nothing gained and a few bucks on r134 just to try.

my .02