According to what you observed, my original diagnosis is correct. The thermostat is not cycling off long enough to complete the defrost cycle. You will need to either adjust the high-temp tolerance (which controls the length of time the AC cycles off), or just replace the thermostat. As far as the orange refrigerant, that isn't good. Has it been a few years since you had the system serviced? It sound like it is time to have it evacuated, and a new receiver-dryer fit. The Reciever Dryer is a filter for the AC, and it contains desiccant to absorb moisture that pollutes the refrigerant over time. Orange = rusting AC components, meaning the desiccant has been saturated for a long while, and innards of your AC are corroding. Have a competant shop evacuate the system, replace the RD, and pull a vacuum on the whole system for 30-60 minutes to dry everything out completely. You may as well convert to R-134 as it is now cheaper than dirt. You will be amazed at how well your AC will work after this service. G. Matthew Bulley Bulley-Hewlett & Associates www.bulley-hewlett.com Cary, NC USA 888.468.4880 tollfree
-----Original Message----- From: John Dorn [SMTP:jrdorn@BELLSOUTH.NET] Sent: Saturday, June 26, 1999 4:46 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: AC Part II Hi there, A few days ago I asked about my evaporator freezing, wondering if it was the switch with the capillary tube that is inserted into it. I got some different suggestions so today I spent a little time with it. I checked the evaporator fins to make sure they were clear (they were for the most part but I cleaned them a little more), then ran the ac while right next to the evaporator. Almost instantly a bit of moisture formed on half of it. This continued to form until the moisture slowly began turning to ice. I could hear the switch right there cycling on and off but it is located in the half of the evaporator that was not icing. I took a quick drive and I could tell that the switch was cycling on and off when off things would begin to melt, when on they would freeze up again (freezing a little bit more area each time), all the while the section of the evaporator where the capillary tube goes in never even developed moisture. Any guesses? Oh, I also gave a quick visual inspection of the rest of the AC components while it was running, everything looked normal except for the receiver/drier site glass where the color was orange (is this my problem?). Thanks for your help John |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.