Date:         Fri, 1 Sep 2000 10:43:08 +1100
Reply-To:     David Del Ben <ddelben@AIRINTER.COM.AU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Del Ben <ddelben@AIRINTER.COM.AU>
Organization: Air International Transit
Subject:      Re: D.I.Y. R-134 Kit AC Recharge advice
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Ditto to some good advice below from Charlie.
Being an Air Conditioning Engineer myself - can testify to the comments
below.
Don't even attempt to work on the A/C unless you know what you're doing.

Slight comment:
R12 & R134a are equivalent pressures for all intensive purposes. R134a was
designed that way. R134a is slightly higher at high temps, but is
slighghtly lower at low temps.
Don't see any reason why the Vanagons cannot be successfully converted to
R134a from R12 when done correctly.

David Del Ben
Air International Transit
Ph      (02) 9830 7119
Fax     (02) 9672 1018

-----Original Message-----
From:   Charles Hokanson [SMTP:Candmhok@AOL.COM]
Sent:   Friday, September 01, 2000 10:16 AM
To:     vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject:        Re: D.I.Y. R-134 Kit AC Recharge advice

Yes there is a lot more to know.
First, if you have a vanagon, you do not have R134 unless it has already
been converted. you have R12 and they cannot be mixed (either physically or
legally, and niether can their oils). If you are thinkng of using one of
those walmart Interdynamics conversion kits, my advice would be don't.  the
process is much more involved than it seems from the kit.  If you are going
to do a 134a conversion right you need to evacuate the system, flush it,
change the seals, change the receiver/dryer, add PAG oil, vaccum,  then
charge (and I may have missed some stuff as I writing quickly -- Like there
is a rule on high pressure cut off switches, but I dunno if it is
applicable to vanagons).  If you need more feedback on those kits go to
aircondition.com in the questions board and look at all the posts from
people who bought the kit, got cold air for a short time, then destroyed
their A/C system  THEN posted questions about how to do it.  That site is
also a great place to learn and get ques!
tions answered. GO TO THAT SITE BEFORE DOING ANYTHING!!!!
BTW: if you are trying to convert just so you can get the refrigerant and
so to do the job yourself, I recommend you go to epatest.com and spend
18.00, take a test and get certified so you can buy R12 (or Freeze 12 which
I think ken at vanagain likes and is a lot cheapre than R12.)  Off the
cuff, and without trying it, I do not believe our vehicles are good
candidates for 134 conversions anyway -- r12 and r134 systems ARE different
in many ways not the least of which is the higher pressures of 134 (and
smaller molecules leading to leaks) and the need for a larger (preferably
crossflow) condensor.  That's my opinion.  Charlie.