I am parting out my wrecked lude and i need to discharge the ac system. what is a safe procedure to do this? Note i cannot take it to a shop as it is not driveable.

 

Hey.
The right way to do it would be to use a freon recycling system. I'm guessing you don't have one ;-)

You can also use an empty freon can and a little thermodynamics. Hook your hoses up to the A/C system and the center hose to the empty can. Put the empty can in a bucket of ice. Open the valves. The low temperature will condense the freon in the can (assuming that the a/c system is warm, maybe not this time of year depending on where you live). You can hear the freon "sizzle" on the sides of the can. Slowly, your pressures will drop. You are using the difference in temperature to "pump" the freon out of the car into the can. When the pressure on both the high and low side show an equivilant 32F temp for R134 then the system is as empty as it will get. This can take an hour or more, depending on the temperature difference between the car and the ice bucket. Close the valves and disconnect the hoses. There will only be a few psi of freon gas left that will vent when you disconnect the first a/c component. All the liquid freon from the car will be in the can in the ice.

I've used this several times on R12 systems to capture the freon without venting it. Works great, but is probably not EPA approved. Even so, it is MUCH better than just venting that crap into the already damaged environment. Also, if the can was clean and started at a vacuum (you would need a vacuum pump for that) and the A/C system was undamaged (no burnt compressor) then you can reuse the freon that you captured the next time you need a charge boost on another car.

Good luck
Zfreak

 

Wow. One post and it's all the info i ever needed. Thanks man that is a big help.