I've tried searching and can't really find what I'm looking for. I finally got my ac hose rerouted and sealed. But what all do I need to recharge the system?

Do the cans in the store have the compressor oil along with the r134a that I need? I've also read about it being necessary to pull a vacuum on the system before recharghing?

Thanks

 

If the system was open like in your case your definatley need to vacumn the system down. They make vacumn pumps for this purpose. I use a homemade setup built out of an old ford compressor but its not pretty...lol Anyway the way it works is you pull about 30lbs of vacumn and let it sit to see if it holds the vacumn to tell if the system is leaking and also to remove air from the system. If you charge the system without vacuming it down your pressures will be too high and causes drag from the compressor working too hard. You can also blow a seal or hose. FYI the sticker on a ranger says 1lb 14oz of freon or 30 oz or 2 1/2 (12oz)cans...

 

Thanks John.

 

yw

 

The can crap is junk. It contains that stop leak stuff. If you can find cans without stop leak get those, and YES it does have compressor oil. You need to recover and pull a vaccum on the system for at least 15 minutes since the system has been open. Once done pulling vaccum it should hold 30lbs of vaccum for 5 minutes, if it doesn't you have a leak in the system.

I highly doubt you have a recovery station, but it's the best way to do this work. It will also inject the R134a and the compressor/PAG oil.

 

You can get cans of plain old 134a or the cans with dye or oil at autozone.
You can also rent the vacuum pump and guage set for free, Just pay the deposit and it will be returned to you upon bringing the tools back.

 

^There you go. That dye is a major help, and you must have a pump for this job.

BTW is it UV dye?

 

I'm assuming the dye is to help locate any leaks? Is that what makes it that flourescent yellow?

You guys are awesome. Thanks for the help.

 

let me know how this works out. i think i have a leak in my lines so ill be watching this closely

 

The yellow is the Oil, or at least all the oil I inject is that color. I could be wrong. The UV dye will not show up untill you hit it with a blacklight, and your wearing the UV glasses. It's my understanding Ford uses UV dye from the factory. I don't know if it's true or not.

 

The dye is floresent yellow. It will slightly show up, but is easyily detectable with a uv light and glasses( also rentable from autozone ) or for u guys looking to detect a leak u can get a dye shot; a small can of dye with the hose attached that is injeceted into the low side which can then be detected by uv light