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Topic: Air conditioner compressor belt removal (Read 1089 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Air conditioner compressor belt removal

Reply #25 –
Removed it. No problem and it's stored in the winter. The dash heat works great and I sure enjoy the hot water when arriving at the campground because of the heater option from the engine coolant
1996 U295-36, Cummins 300hp, 8.3. Build number 4864. Vin number 1F97D536XTNO54271. Purchased October 31, 2019.

Re: Air conditioner compressor belt removal

Reply #26 –
Our ac was seized when we saw it on the lot.  We requested it to be fixed before we completed the purchase.  We were actually there when the guy came to work on it.  He was definitely a "rough around the edges" kind of guy.  He replaced just the compressor, not even the drier.  System has been fantastic for 6 years since.  We did have to replace the condenser fan and I used a generic advance auto fan - which surprisingly moves a ton of air.  It's getting a little weak now so I probably have a very slow leak. 

In our coach we really need the dash ac plus the generator and roof acs to be comfortable.

Re: Air conditioner compressor belt removal

Reply #27 –
Our dash air was blowing fairly warm air. After reading this last week, I decided to get after it. First, put in some dye and ran the system looking for leaks.  Didn't find anything.  Put the vacuum pump to it and evacuated the system. Left the gauges on and didn't loose any vacuum pressure for over 6 hours.
Just to be safe, before recharging it, put in a can of Red Angel. Then recharged with R134a. By the time I was finished, it took almost 7 pounds of Freon.
The good news, when I did the job last Friday, it was blowing 42 degrees at the dash vents.  Ran it today, and still blowing 42 degrees at the dash vents.
Curious to see how long it lasts, but very happy to have cold air at the dash again. 
I was fortunate to be able to borrow the gauge set and vacuum pump from a friend.  Watched a lot of YouTube videos to learn how to use them.
Mark & Bev
2001 U295 36' Slide
Cummins ISC 8.3 350HP
Build #5802
Jeep Wrangler Toad
 

Re: Air conditioner compressor belt removal

Reply #28 –
I had a bit of an interesting time charging mine which has caused me to start looking into superheat and subcooling.  Basically my belt has always been lose which led to me tightening it.  (short story - required a pry bar and a 2x4 thanks to no tensioning screw).

Since mine has been progressively getting warmer, I checked the refrigerant levels and it was only hitting around 150psi on the high side and 10psi on the low side.  So I put half a can into it and it got up to 200psi on the high side and 20psi on the low side.  Dash vents felt MUCH colder.  Of course since it was 95F outside the low side was supposed to be something like 45-50psi and the high side was supposed to be 240psi.  So I started adding more refrigerant, another half a can.  Interestingly the high side refused to go over 200psi and even if it did go over 200psi while charging it never stayed there and seemed to keep wanting to go down.  The low side did creep up though towards 25psi.  I decided to quit while I was ahead but I've never seen a system behave quite like that.  It must have something to do with how the expansion valve works or more likely limited knowledge on my part.