I have the original stock r12 ac setup and i dont have any refrigerant in the lines.
Now when i turn my ac button ON am i suppose to hear the compressor clutch make a noise? Or if because theres no refrigerant cycling, the clutch wont engage.

 

Won't engage. There's a pressure sensor in the system that acts like a relay.

What car do you have?

 

Ef4doorwagon, download the 88-90 civic manual from here: http://hondatech.info/downloads/Auto/Manuals/Civic/

Then, you can reference the factory service manual for all of these little questions you have, instead of posting a new thread...

 

I see. Thx for both replies, both helped me out. Oh and i have an 89 sedan

 

For a short period of time (2 seconds) you can unplug the one wire connector o th compressor and hook it direct to battery. You should hear a decent click of compressor clutch coming together.
Also, you can unplug the connector on ac line the pressure sensor near the battery. Putting a jumper in the connector for a second should determine if the sensor is bad or if you are low of refrigerant. The system will blow air with the car running. Again, just done for a quick test.

 

I connected a jumper wire from the compressor to the battery and it clicks( with car off) but i dont know where the other thing near the battery is...is it where the high pressure line meets a plug, then runs to the condenser?

 

Replace the receiver/drier and then recharge the system with the exact weight of R12 indicated on the sticker under the hood. Performance test the A/C system and then go from there.

 

Bottom left of this image
"Pressure switch connector"

 

Thx for the info. Turns out my compressor clutch was fine, but there was a leak near the top hose that attaches to fire wall, previous owner bent and stripped the nut that tightens on the evap lines.

Anyways, i have this complete aftermarket r134 ac that im about to put into my ef, and my question is do i have to use the manifold gauge set to vacuum any refrigerant left in the lines/compressor?
Or can i just used compressed air to blow it out lol.

 

Bump- really need to know, my second hose ( high pressure hose) has no fitting for any type of gauge. Its a hose that goes from fire wall to the dryer, has no fitting anywhere on the hose.

 

And when you get it running, here is a performance test chart I built in CAD from the super crappy drawing they give you in the book. To do this test you will need to measure both your high & low side pressures, the ambient air temp, your ac vent temp, and local humidity. Just check google weather for the humidity and ambient temp to make life a little easier. Then just follow the instructions in the shop manual....

Open the drawing in MS Paint. Then draw a vertical line through the entire thing at your ambient temp. Now whatever humidity % it is outside, you draw 1 horizontal line in each section from where it intersects your local relative humidity. Wherever those horizontal lines intersect your pressures and vent temp scale is about where your readings should be (+/- 10 percent humidity). If any of your readings are outside those ranges, the book helps to diagnose your exact problems.

 

Ok maybe this pic will help a bit ( sorry for the crappy arrows, did it with my finger on my phone)

But to explain how this setup connects:

1) low side ac line from evap to compressor
2) high side ( no fitting) from evap to dryer
3) lower part of condenser hose to dryer
4) hose with orange rubber thing from compressor to top part of condenser


* to clear things up a bit, by fitting i mean like those cap things that say H and L. Only my low side hose has that fitting, but the High one has nothing.

 

Bump

 

It looks like someone had some hoses made for your car. There are two type of lines: the hard-lines and the flexible hoses. You can't buy the hard-lines anywhere but Honda or a junkyard. I suppose someone just went the cheap way on yours and filled through the low-side without checking high-side pressures. You have to find some OEM hard-lines, then start from there. See pic of my OEM high-side port.



If you do get to where you try to refill and get this thing running, I recommend going back to R12. I tried both and the evaporator on this car just isn't big enough to make R134 work in 100+ temps, while sitting at a light. I'm 10 degrees colder after going back to R12. Also, I can't tell from your pic, but if you need a Matsushita compressor, I have a newly rebuilt one that I accidentally bought and could not send back. If you want it, let me know. I can't tell if yours is Sanden or Matsu, from the pic.

 

Thx for the info. The new compressor is a sanden one, and the bracket for the compressor wont bolt onto my b2 block. And the sanden compressor wont bolt into my stock ac bracket. So im going to use my old set up, but with the " new evaporator" , but now that i hooked the evap up im getting a code 13??

 

There is a "bolt-on" parallel flow condenser on the market for these cars. This is all you need for a R134a retrofit (plus a super high quality "double end-capped" PAG oil like SuperCool PAG46 or Sanden SP10).

http://www.shepherdautoparts.com/aut...OWw5vDkcKi.htm



This will more than make up for the loss with R134a. I put this in my CRX and the AC blows plenty cold on 134. Colder than my 05 TL. The compressor still cycles on & off even when you have the system maxxed out on the freeway (because vent temps get so cold). It's regularly over 100* here in vegas (max ~115*f).

Just be aware it's not a perfect drop in fit. The pipe curving to the bottom port interferes with the radiator support. I had to knock a big bend into mine to get this thing to fit. I'm sure some more subtle trimming would look much nicer. Of course it's all covered by the bumper cover once in place anyways but I'm **** like that.

The other stupid thing is the pipe running across the top is completely unsupported, so you better brace it with something. I used a few layers of foam tape next to the joint to snug up the free play. This keeps the rest of the hard-lines from tugging it back & forth.

After getting this thing installed in my CRX, I can honestly say the CRX has fantastic AC.

 

Well.... um what im going to try to accomplish is, i will be using the specific r134 evaporator, with stock ef ac lines. Stock compressor. The dryer from the r134 system, and maybe the r134 condensor if the fittings line up.

Only problem is i have to use like an aftermarket ac harness( which i have) but it requires like an inline fuse to be attached to a wire going to the fuse box. I did that but it caused code 13- atmosphere pressure problem, so i took off the inline and code went away, but idk where to plug that inline into. Need help on this.

 

So from my pics, that white wire with the yellow inline i attached it to that exposed white wirecoming from the fuse box, but threw code 13.
On my stock harness, theres a plug( circled in green) that connects into the fuse box ( circled in red) what do i do to bypass this plug, or where do i connect the inline fuse so that it functions and wont throw code 13?