New Member Introduction

[Dieseltech67]

Hello 🙂,
I am a retired diesel and hydro tech with 40yrs. experience in that field. In the dealership dealership days before doing it sole proprietor, all AC work has handed off to a dedicated AC guy. I never got a black belt in the discipline. When I was a sole proprietor, I got by with vacuuming to 30, let sit a few hours and check for needle drop, spray out flushes ect.
Well….,, Friend has an 01 7.3 Powerstroke Excursion that sat for 10yrs. Sweet Limited with rear AC. He is a retired pediatric surgeon from Johns Hopkins. They tore down the parking garage and built a new one and the Excursion would not fit sooo, it sat at his house for over 10 years. He retired and asked me to get her going again. Motor, tranny out, gone thru and updated including getting rid of ticking time bomb mechanical diode on the direct clutch drum they used on the 4R100 for the 01 year and converted it to a sprag. Too much refresh and update to the 7.3 to list.
I got to AC replacement of all and hit a snag!!
The high pressure line that feed both evaps was not available. Only was were Fseries snd Exs without rear AC so I got a one for a single evap. That gave me the new rubber hose that I was after. I cut it and ised a Dorman AC line splice union and that allowed me to tie into the long metal high pressure line. Thpught OK after vacuuming down to 30. Wrong! Saw dye after charging.
Tightened split, brought pressure back up. Needle pn gauge did not move for 2 days.
Neighbor walks over when I am indide my shop.
I walk out snd the guy has his hands on my manifold. Do not touch! Did you turn anything? No. Ok. I never look and went about doing something else.
Well.. pressures acted weird. Everything was weird.
Recovered refrigererent and opened orfice tube joint.
I had put a Four Seasons variable valve upto 105 degree 38902 in it. Back it had blown apart because he DID touch( see photo). Unscrewed low line at the drier and blew out the jammed in part and the valve pieces with shop air into a rag. Ok, nothing got past the 38902’s orings. Then I took the schrader valve out of the highside port. I blew in with shop air the other plastic end that had a srction of screen intact and nicely sealing against the inside of line. See attached photos if I can figure out how to post with this forum’s software.
Ok, think cool, all out but now I am loaded with moisture. Put a new 38902 in, and new orings on lines, snap back together, tightened line nut at drier.
I took my 20lb CO2 mig tank ( full of course) off the welding cart and said to self you are alwsys using flux core wire due to wind anyway, go swap it for nitrogen and do the sweep I used to hear bits and pieces about back in the day.
Soo, feel free to laugh at the yellow belt. Initially typed purple belt and within a second thought.., You are in the presence of black belts do you better change that to yellow belt.
New humble guy…
Sinsays, go easy on me, please🙂.
I came back after swapping out tanks.
I vacuumed to 30. Let sit for 2hours. No needle movement.
Closed valve on hose at pump.
I connected to nitrogen tank.
Regulator screw all out.
Opened tank’s valve.
Screwed regular screw in a bit on new nitrogen regulator.
I opened the high side service port and slowly charged to 10lb.
Low side equalized relatively quickly.
I let it sit for 20 minutes.
Started the pull down.
Some very tiny bubbles on sight glass. Figured maybe some oil on vapor hitching a ride out. Less than first pull down after return trip from gas shop.
First pull down with nitro to 30.
Closed it all down and let sit for 45 minutes.
Recharge to 10psi
Let sit for 45minutes.
Now just one tiny tiny bubble on glass.
Closed all valves.
Too late at night to do the third.
Innerweb research so far for a vacuum micron meter is depressing. Reviews seem dicey for a budget model until you get to a Fieldpiece @ $269 with prine shipping from Amazon but it can’t be had until August. Fieldpiece seems to have them price fixed st that price-point with all vendors ( exactly what Rolex watch company does to make sure all heads het cracked evenly) and sure they have shipping on top.
Would LOVE a badboy model of s good brand that
that will link to my Iphone and let me see water drops saying good bye to a glat line on a graph but I unrealistically wish, especially when talking $269 is kinda rough as it will not get used much.
#1 Have I been doing ok on this job so far??
# Is there panacea in regards to a meter?
#3 really not crazy about idea of not using one on this massive system with all of exposure time in massive humidity and using shop air to get those pieces out.

It is 10:00 PM. I am still in shop. I need to shower, eat, crash, get up early and go play doctor on a sick International 466 diesel.
I will check in with you experts tomorrow.
I thank all in advance.
Post script. I do not see button that allows for posting pictures.

[JohnHere]

How can we help you with the 2001 Excursion? A simple question or two would be a good start.

[Dieseltech67]

I think I know cause ( please re-rude. Absolutely Not being rude)but thank you, sir. I do thank you for your reply and willingness to help.
Please re-read.
In there is explanations of situation. I hope you concur.

Micron gauge purchase advice was requested. Was unable to get it in the timeframe, needed so I pulled the trigger on the Field Piece MG 44.

Please also curtique my methods so far.
I tried uploading photos by typing the landscapr icon last night but I had no luck. Not sure if I am doing something wrong. I am on my Iphone do maybe it’s that I am not using mobile version or something. I am not familiar with this forum software. I am used to Fora software as I help people on a couple diesel sites owned by the dark lords of Vertical Scope.
Again, Thank You. It is nice to meet you.

[Dieseltech67]

Meter shipment delayed until Weds-Thurs.
No one has commented on my method and technic as requested so I hope both are good. Hope the reason is not that I was being perceived as being rude or something.
I understand Field Piece wants that guage mounted away from the pump. I am hoping mounting it on that spare port at charge/vacuum port on manifold. Am I good there? Will it still read ok there with the pump not running, which would be ideal but is that possible?
How do I account for low side hose vacuum decay? What decay number is ok with that??
Men, Help will be appreciated.

[Dieseltech67]

Found s spare low side coupler. I will mount meter there.
You are some busy men!

[Dieseltech67]

Crickets here are awesome.
John,
You received your reply in this thread to my question to me. I assume you got a push notification email that I responded to my reply to your question.
Tim,
You are active. My questions are open to you as well as they are two others.

[Tim]

Emailing that no one is helping you feels a little passive-aggressive. The site is free; responders volunteer their time. No one is required to answer your questions. I've spent 20 years paying for this site and answering these posts from Google shoppers. Plus, many will not even read long posts. I know I don't.

[JohnHere]

Life happens. We will get back to you sooner or later, although I must admit that I'm having some difficulty following your thought process given the length of your original post.

When I was a sole proprietor, I got by with vacuuming to 30, let sit a few hours and check for needle drop, spray out flushes ect.

It pays to bear this in mind: A system that doesn't leak under vacuum might leak under pressure, and vice versa.

I had put a Four Seasons variable valve upto 105 degree 38902 in it.

I suggest not using a Variable Orifice Valve.

Started the pull down. Some very tiny bubbles on sight glass. Figured maybe some oil on vapor hitching a ride out. Less than first pull down after return trip from gas shop. First pull down with nitro to 30. Closed it all down and let sit for 45 minutes. Recharge to 10psi Let sit for 45minutes. Now just one tiny tiny bubble on glass. Closed all valves. Too late at night to do the third.

Generally speaking, a Sight Glass (SG) isn't used for R-134a or R-1234yf. In fact, most newer vehicles don't even have a SG. It was typically used in the "old days" when charging R-12 refrigerant into a system and gauging whether it was low by the bubbles produced in the SG.

Innerweb research so far for a vacuum micron meter is depressing. Reviews seem dicey for a budget model until you get to a Fieldpiece @ $269 with prine shipping from Amazon but it can’t be had until August. Fieldpiece seems to have them price fixed st that price-point with all vendors ( exactly what Rolex watch company does to make sure all heads het cracked evenly) and sure they have shipping on top.

If I recall correctly, Fieldpiece products are intended mostly for HVAC (residential) techs and home inspectors, not MVAC (Mobile Vehicle Air Conditioning) techs. I don't see any reasons why a Fieldpiece micron gauge wouldn't work with an MVAC system if you had the proper connections, although I believe that such use would be considered unusual at most professional MVAC shops.

Would LOVE a badboy model of s good brand that
that will link to my Iphone and let me see water drops saying good bye to a glat line on a graph but I unrealistically wish, especially when talking $269 is kinda rough as it will not get used much.

All you want to do is read the micron gauge directly. Hooking up the gauge to a phone introduces needless complexity into the setup when all you really need is a simple read-out right on the gauge. Direct-read professional MVAC micron gauges are available in the market. ACKits.com, this Forum's sponsor, can supply them as well.

Post script. I do not see button that allows for posting pictures.

It's a surprisingly simple process. When posting a reply, click the "Attachments" tab down below the text box and ensure beforehand that your photo is compressed to 256KB or less. Otherwise, the Forum software won't accept it. Then click "Add files."

[Dieseltech67]

Thank you for the reply. Infer nothing negative for the following outline it is inspired by Tim stating that he does not want to bother to read a long post and thinks nobody else does.

Site glass comment was about on my manifold gauge.

Yes, I know about vacuum and pressure testing leaks and why both should be performed. The Dorman AC line splice kit leaks at 125. Trying AGAIN to source a line for dual air on a 7.3 Powerstroke.

Field Piece MG44 is very nice. In stand alone, you van see increase, decrease and stabile. Linked to other device,in a rolling graph, you can watch the vacuum stabilize snd watch the boil-off of moisture down to blips of moisture switching to gas to finally to perfectly fine flat line.
No commercial machine or manifold set is going to be calibrated at all elevations. True vac readings will not be precise and run time to boil off moisture is a guess or overkill in length. Field piece, you can see boil off in realtime.
Nice also was the order was delayed multiple times with no delay notifications from Amazon sooo.., It became complimentary from Jeff and Lauren Bezos and I do thank them very much. That boy knows how to build and run a business. He built that monster from a $225k loan from his parents to start Amazon as an online book store.
Why do you not like the 2 different temp range Four Seasons variable orfice tubes ( upto 105 degree and 105+)? They are a very popular upgrades in Excursions in the south, and AZ. Bear in mind.., the diesel Excursion does much lower engine RPMs than gasser versions.
I do thank you for having read my post and took the time to reply.

[Dieseltech67]

Also, John, If you are curious sbout the Fieldpiece MT44, there are two AC men with blackbelts in AC on Youtube that have blackbelts in AC. On goes by the user name of “ Cold Fingers”, the other giy is Tom Lech who is second generation in the field and started at the age of 12. He has been at it since the early 1970d. He also does commercial buildings.
They both use the Fielpiece MT44 in junction with their set ups. One of Tom’s videos, he has it linked to hos ipad in s very nice industrial protective case ( wish I had that case). He shows the vacuum being pulling down in the rolling graph. The explains the movement of the line, it’s disturbances and final blips in the line as last of moisture goes to gas, is pulled resulting in a nice smooth line. That video is an excellent demo of it.
I couldn’t fond a video of it’s own screen but it’s instruction sheet does have a good depiction and explanation of it. It is way better viewing it on a device thru Fieldpiece Job Link App.
Check it out.