Air conditioning overhaul

[skunkteeth]

So recently I noticed the air when my non-factory ac is on is no longer cold. My guess is all of the refrigerant leaked out. Im guessing this may be because the lines are just heater hose with regular pipe clamps. Is there a certain hose and clamp that should be used? The previous owner said in was R134 but with what I have seen who knows how accurate that is. Is there a way to tell what kind of refrigerant I have? I did not see any stickers.

Thanks

[sblake01]

An A/C shop should have a refrigerant identifier and they could tell you what kind. You don't have heater hose. Heater hose would burst upon the initial charge. It's bulk barrier hose with hose clamps but the fittings are barbed making it virtually impossible to remove the hoses without cutting them from the barbs. Your hoses are probably old and if that system had 134A in it, that didn't help the situation. In the old non factory systems you should run R12 or a R12 replacement. Those systems weren't designed to work with 134A. I have a non factory system in my 78, charged with Johnsen's Freeze-12 and it's worked fine for over 6 years since I rebuilt the compressor and changed the hoses.