Topic: A/C

[1976bober]

I had the A/C recharged w/r12 and was just on the finish side of the job and oil started to spray on the ex-manifold from the rear of the compressor on the bottom side ,any ideas??? It didn't work when I got it mand I have no histort of whats been done to the system. It was actually working and was cold and we stepped up the RPM's thats when it started w/the oil leak.

[Chuckles]

Well, first off...did it start leaking immediately after you charged it or only after it built some pressure? Did you re-seal or replace anything?

[1976bober]

We checked to see if there was any at all it and it did have some but low, It took the r12 slowly and was actually working like it should and he suggested to run it for a time at a higher steady RPM and after about a 1+1/2 min. istarted to show signs of smoke that turned out to be oil (ref) leaking on the ex. Since I recently puchased it and no info as to what was wrong before I had assumed the fuse at the comp. was bad and we jumped it over to get the comp.to work .It was not noisy or any signs of leaks until it was full and run at a higher RPM . We did not replace any parts.

[Chuckles]

Well, if the compressor works...and it's just leaking, it's only logic to put dye in the system and see where it's coming from. Seems pretty straight forwards to me.

[Maryland Bandit]

If its coming from the rear of the unit, chances are the high side O ring is shot where the double pipes go into the back of the unit. The high and low sides each have an O ring back there. Its held on with one long bolt, but its under pressure. Do not remove it unless you discharge the system first. Otherwise you will have a cold, oily mess spraying out the back.  
Also, you may have one of those O rings pinched and its not sealing right, it dosn't take much. Auto parts stores carry the O rings in a pack of different sizes, get the GREEN R 12 ones, not the brown R134's, it DOES make a difference.