Anyone recharge their car A/C with manifold???

[Timbo]

I need a little help from one of you car experts who's familiar with recharging a car A/C system. I did it before the poor man's way using the can with a guage from Pep-boys. I wanted to do it the right way this time by evacuating the system first, so I purchased an A/C recharge manifold, and got some 134a off ebay a lot cheaper than the local store. I need to get a few adapters to mate with my vacuum pump and they are on order.

The issue I need help with involves the yellow hose that will be use to both evacuate the system, and to refill the 134a through. The fittings on either end are both ACME female. However, one end appears to have a check-valve (?) incorporated into the fitting. My question is which end connects to the manifold, and which to the 134a can adapter? Thanks.

 

[tim self]

The end without the valve core in it goes to the manifold. That way when you disconnect it from the can holder or vacuum pump it does not loose vacuum or Freon. If you have anymore questions, just ask. ASE Master.

 

[EBorraga]

You say evacuate the system. Are you attempting to do this with the stuff you mentioned? If so you will need an orphan tank to evacuate the old freon into. You will also need some sort of scale that measures ounces to recharge the system. As for the cheap 134-a, do some research and make sure it's pure and doesn't contain propane.

 

[Timbo]

The end without the valve core in it goes to the manifold. That way when you disconnect it from the can holder or vacuum pump it does not loose vacuum or Freon. If you have anymore questions, just ask. ASE Master.

I thought that was the case but I had no idea which direction flow was allowed...now I do. Thanks!

Had to look up ASE...now that I know what that means you'll likely be getting some PMs from me in the future. My wife and I are both semi-retired trying to stretch our $$$ where we can, so I'm doing more maintenance on our cars than I use too when we were working full time. I'm rediscovering the big savings to be had on car repairs/maintenance with a little mechanical aptitude, a little research and the right tools. I also recently purchased an OBD II code reader which already paid for itself when the engine check light came on on our Accord and I was able to pull the code myself and saved $40 just on that. . Some quick internet research allowed me to identify the problem when the heater blower fan stop working on one of the four settings. A $30 part which was very easy to install fixed the problem that the dealer wanted $130 to do. I'm sure I'm going to run into some stuff I'm just not comfortable doing, but I'll keep tackling the little stuff were I can.

 

[Timbo]

You say evacuate the system. Are you attempting to do this with the stuff you mentioned? If so you will need an orphan tank to evacuate the old freon into. You will also need some sort of scale that measures ounces to recharge the system. As for the cheap 134-a, do some research and make sure it's pure and doesn't contain propane.

Thanks Ernie. I know for a fact that the system is completely empty, so I don't need to worry about recovery on this fix. I do have a gram/ounce scale so I'll be using that determine how much to use from the last can. As for propane contamination, I'll see if I can track down an MSDS for the brand I plan to use.