Going soon to borrow the gauges... will it hurt it to run the AC long enough to verify high and low side pressure reading? Probably not.....

I know my father-in-law has the gauges, not sure about the vacuum pump though.

Thanks for the help guys, seems like the only thing left to do is read what is happening.

 

the stuff in the engine bay is mark 7. i have had this problem with many a/c systems.if the orffice tube is clogged u will have to replace the line on the bottom right side,the orfice is in it. and more then likely you will need a new compressor.

 

yep on a Ford its called a liquid line, the orfice is inside, not replaceable. Not like GM which has a removeable orfice tube.

 

Yep, the AC gauges read very high on the low side and very low on the high side.

I have 90 psi on the low side, and only about 125 psi on the high side.

A website says this reading is a worn out compressor. I'm glad it all is in the engine bay, I didn't want to take the whole dash apart.

 

if you dont pull a vaacuum it will not work.thats called evacuating .If you dont I gaurantee it will not work

 

normal low side with 134a is 40 to 45. High side pressure should be aroun 200 to 250 . if the high side is getting too high put a fan in front of the condenser or run a water hose on the condenser and see if the high side comes down. If it does and the low side stays at 40 or so than you need to put an auxillary fan on the condenser . you said 90 on the low side ? And 125 low side ? Thats a high side restriction . Its backing up into the low sie. Eitherw way you shoul pull the otube and check it for metal .If its real bad you may as well change the condenser . If its real bad you'll never flush the condenser good enough

 

Okay, so do the gauges read properly if they are just connected while the AC is on?

 

Yeah, that was what the readings were.... I'm definitely gonna do like Harold says and pull the o-tube plumbing off, look for a new dryer and compressor.

 

As hot as its been lately, we've been doing a/c jobs all day every day lately

 

dryer is a must as well as evacuating it