Removing A/C

[heavenzjai]

I have a leak in my A/C compressor, i want to just remove the dang thing instead of replacing it. how do i do it n how much will it cost? i know i have to get new belts....wat else?

[Potatoes]

Well... if you are good with cars... removing the A/C system yourself would just take some time and a lot of patience. You have to remove the compressor which it probably the biggest job. Then you would have to remove the refrigerant lines, relays, condensor fan, cooling unit... etc. Check the online shop manual to help you out. Of course you gotta change the belt after all that. If your taking it to a shop give them about 4 hrs of work MAX!! So the cost would be what your mechanic charges per hour. On a difficulty scale out of 10.. I would give it a 6. On the other hand... maybe just fixing your A/C system would be better!<BR>~Dean

[heavenzjai]

Hum.....fixing a AC Compressor...is that even POSSIBLE??? replacing it would cost alot of bucks, i think just removing everything would be cheaper, n lighter for my car. Where could i get the belt for it though? i could probably do it myself w/ the help of the maunal....

[pelado]

You're going to run without air in Sacramento? When the summer comes you're going to fry your brain! Compressors aren't that expensive!

[David Coleman]

My friend Mike took his AC out of his PGT-A:<P><B>Removing a/c is so elite. Those of us unfortunate enough to have a/c installed from the factory should do our cars the favor of removing that unfortunate accessory as quickly as possible. <P>Assuming you dont have an underdrive pulley on your crank.. just go to any auto parts store and ask for an accessory belt for your alternator/crank on a 93 probe GT with no air conditioning, they can look that up. If you do have a UDP (which I dont think you do, but you should damnit! That's at least 5whp with that boost.. i bet MANNY has a UDP! ;D ) then the Dayco part # is 315K5, 31.5" 5 ribbed belt. The belt for the stock crank pulley is a 34" 5 ribbed belt, part # should be 340K5. <P>Takin out da ay see.... <P>Tools I remember using: <BR>10mm,12mm, & 14mm sockets, 3" & 6" socket extensions, socket wrench, 17mm wrench, peach snapple. <P>Jack up the car and peel back the splashguard on the underside of the engine bay underneath the passenger's side of the car so you have some room to work with. A creeper helps alot on this one btw! The first thing you have to do is take the belt off the a/c compressor. Get a 17mm wrench and loosen the tensioner pulley bolt. Turn it counterclockwise until its all the way loose.. I found this to be easier to do from underneath the car. It's annoying, but you have to loosen it in order to turn the tensioner. Once its loose, put the 10mm socket w/ extension on the tensioner and loosen it all the way. Now you should be able to slip the belt off the crank pulley (that big, heavy, stock pulley... ). Put the new belt on now, make sure its snug/secure and all that. it should just barely slide on if you have the tensioner backed off all the way. Tighten the tensioner once its on, then make sure the belt isn't too tight or loose. Now tighten the 17mm bolt on the tensioner pulley again, and you're done with the belt. Step back to admire your work. Start the car up if you want to make sure it doesnt squeal. <P>Now onto the fun stuff... you'll have to discharge the a/c system. Now, of course its incredibly illegal to do this yourself, so I'll just describe the way *not* to do it, for reference. Do NOT put a 12mm socket & wrench over the a/c lines where they come in and connect to the compressor, and do NOT slowly turn the bolt counterclockwise until you hear a hissing... then a little more turning until the freon is coming out at a steady pace. There's gonna be some liquid crap coming out too, so once the line is sufficiently loose put a bucket under there to catch anything that comes out. You dont want this yellow ickypoo stuff all over your driveway/garage. The system takes awhile to discharge, so try to take a big breath of fresh air from somewhere and charge back under the car with your 12mm socket/wrench and loosen the bolt some more. To make this part go much faster... once the bolt is loosened, give the line a slight tug away from the compressor. The r12/freon is going to come bustin out at that point, and its a loud & scary experience if you're not expecting it.. so make sure your face isnt right next to the thing if you decide to do that. You'll be able to hear it draining out, just tell everyone to stay out of that area for a few minutes while it empties out. Try not to breathe around the car at this point, heh. <P>Done? Good. take your bucket of goop and hold it underneath the lines, because some more is going to come falling out. Pull each of the two now disconnected lines away from the compressor, making sure you catch anything that falls out of them. Push the lines off to the side, cause you're going to have to get some sockets and wrenches up in that area now. <P>Bust out your 14mm socket, preferably with a 3" extension on it to make things easier. There's four 14mm bolts that connect the compressor to the bracket behind it. The first two are down on the bottom of the compressor, staring you in the face. Take those suckers out, they're huge bolts. Huge bolts = heavy = dead weight = muhahahha. Got em? Good. Now there's two more on the top that are a little harder to see. Get your socket up there and you'll find them. Take those two out and now the compressor should hang freely. When you pull the last bolt out be sure to have the compressor supported somehow so its huge 20 lb bulk doesnt come crashing down to the ground. The reason you dont want that is cause there's an electrical connector still attached to it. Unhook that connector, there's a clip about 2/3 of the way up the wiring, you can reach it from under the hood. <P>The compressor should be sitting freely now, you can take it out. Put it down somewhere and watch the yellow goo drip out, and admire your work. Continue admiring your work as you sip on your peach snapple, and maybe go check the 2.5L performance forum really quickly. The bracket that held the compressor is right behind where it used to sit. There's six (heavy!) 14mm bolts holding it on, so take them off and it comes right out. There's another 3-4 lbs of dead weight! Make sure you dont bust your knuckles on things when the bolts break loose, cause it hurts Dont worry about the fact that the a/c lines are still dangling there. You can take them out later if you really want to (I did). <P>Now the new belt is on and the a/c compressor is completely removed. There's other components left, but none of them are as significant as what is done so far. The a/c compressor, hm. I'm not even going to describe how to do that one because darin has a huge intercooler sitting right there and it would be next to impossible to get to without taking the intercooler out. I had to take the front bumper off and mess around with taking little brackets and such off for about 3 hours before I finally got it loose, then I hacksawed the lines going into it because it really didnt want to come out otherwise. Taking the condensor out does free up a significant amount of airflow to the radiator though, so go for it if you feel up to the task. I'm not going to describe 5 hours of annoyance, bolts, bleeding, and frustration here though! <P>The accumulator. That should come out for sure, I just took mine out the other day. It's that black cylinder lookin thing by the firewall on the passenger side of the motor. Disconnect the lines going into it. You'll need a 7/8" wrench and also a large adjustable wrench to fit on the huge fitting required (bigger than 15/16", which is as high as my wrenches go ) Take the lines off with a wrench. There's two like that, and one electrical connector.. disconnect that as well. Now there's just two 10mm bolts holding the accumulator on, so take them off and you're home free. Stuff some paper towels in the holes of the accumulator so no moisture gets in there, just in case you decide to sell it or use it again. <P>There's more you can do, like removing all the lines or getting stuff out from under the dash. For me, eliminating a pulley, taking out ~30 lbs of crap I dont use, and freeing up more airflow to the radiator was good enough. I'm fuggin starving, time for some wendy's. <P></B> [img]shrug.gif"%20border="0[/img]

[heavenzjai]

THanks alot david coleman for that..um..lesson. i guess it can be done. how long did it take u to take out the ac compressor???<BR>u dont need ac, u have windows and a mini fan plugged into the cigrette...........<BR>hahah

[HowLeTT]

it took about 2 hours for me to do the entire procedure, with the exception of the a/c condensor.<P>You could get the compressor out in 45 minutes or so if you're decent with working on cars.