My high pressure refrigerant hose, MHE7340BA has started to leak at the crimp. I will need a new one, but it is NLA.
Does anyone know the fitting sizes so I can have one made up? I’d prefer to swap out the old one with the new one immediately instead of pulling it off and waiting a few days with the system open. I just replaced my drier and would prefer not to replace that again.
If the metal parts are OK, it’s pretty easy to find a shop that’ll rebuild that assembly for you. Or you could do it yourself; you just need to find a length of suitable hose. Carefully measure the overall length and alignment, cut the old crimps off, push on the new hose, and secure with worm clamps. They make special clamps for this job, but they are just worm clamps with a little tang to indicate how far you need to position them away from the end of the hose. As long as you’re not stupid enough to put the clamps right at the end of the hose, regular worm clamps will work fine.
Needless to say, you’ll save a cubic foot of cash over finding a NOS part.
BTW, when I rebuilt the hoses on my '83, I actually changed the lengths and alignment slightly. My originals didn’t really fit all that well, but with a little adjustment the rebuilt hoses fit a LOT better.
I have had excellent results with a wide range of hoses that I have had rebuild locally because they are not available anymore from Jaguar. These include oil cooler hoses, transmission cooler hoses, power steering hoses and refrigerant hoses. Some of the shops offer a mobile service where they drive a specially equipped truck out to your location and rebuild the hose there using your original metal fittings. I have always dropped my hoses off at their main location and then picked them up a day or two later so I have no idea what the additional service charge is for mobile service. If you are looking for a way to minimize the amount of time when the system is open to the atmosphere I recommend that you contact a hose building service company near you (wherever in the world that is) and see if they can meet your needs.
Regards,
Paul M. Novak
1990 Series III V12 Vanden Plas
1990 XJ-S Classic Collection convertible
1987 XJ6 Vanden Plas
1984 XJ6 Vanden Plas
1969 E-Type FHC
1957 MK VIII Saloon
Ramona, CA USA
If you are looking
for a way to minimize the amount of time when the system is open to
the atmosphere…
Always a good plan – which means when you remove something from your
freon circuit, you should cap the openings.
– Kirbert
Thank you for the help. Unfortunately not only is the crimp failing, but it appears the schrader valve is also failing. I will not be able to reuse the metal part.
I have found a place that can fabricate any hose, but they’ll need to see the hose first. I’m going to take it off and take it over tomorrow. I will drain depressurize the system and take off the hose, and cap off both ends.
Thanks again for your help. I’ll report back on the name of the connector to the compressor, as well as the thread size on the other end for future reference.
You have a late facelift car right? The valve looks like part of the hose, but it isn’t. You can unscrew it. I had to buy a special mastercool socket and this wasn’t cheap. Pretty sure I got it on Amazon. The valve came from AutoZone.
Unfortunately not only is the crimp failing,
but it appears the schrader valve is also failing. I will not be able
to reuse the metal part.
The schrader valve itself is replaceable. But, I’ll take your word that the
metal part cannot be reused.
Another idea: Find a junkyard that will let you wander around. Find a car
with the same type compressor as you have. Take the hose off that, and
use the end of it to rebuild your hose.
I have found a place that can fabricate any hose, but they’ll need to
see the hose first.
That sounds promising. That’s the kinda place you need to get friendly with
when you own an XJ-S.
– Kirbert
OK, its never easy.
I found out that the connector to the compressor is indeed unique, but luckily it’s not leaking, so that can easily be re-used. It’s not a problem to take the crimp off, replace the hose (while I’m at it) and recrimp it to the old part.
FYI, the “pad mount fitting” to the compressor is 7/8" deep. The fitting itself is 1-1/4" diameter, and the inlet has an OD of 5/8" and an ID of 7/16" if anyone was ever interested.
The other end seems to be a bit more of an issue. The crimp has certainly failed, as has the schrader valve. I believed it was a simple fix, and might still be, but the person I spoke to sent it back to the shop to have the guys that do fabrication have a look at it. He made a bigger deal out of this request, but might not be as well versed. I still believe it needs a new crimp, and the high pressure schrader valve replaced. Certainly a seemingly simple task with the right tools.
For those interested, the threaded connection seems to be 3/4-20. That certainly is an odd thread size, so I couldn’t double check what I was told. I don’t have any access to that kind of threaded fitting to make sure!
Right now I have taped plastic covering the threaded end of the open system, and have made use of one of those nylon spacers you get with TV mounting kits. One of them was exactly 7/8" deep, so i covered the compressor hole with plastic and tightened everything back down so it should be protected from the environment.
OK, I’ll weigh in.
The original hose is an R134a barrier type with beadlock fittings. Unlike the old R12 hoses, the ferrule is integral to the body of the fitting. I have heard of adventurous DIYers using separate R12 ferrules to repair R134a barrier hoses, but I have never done it and have no idea how well it seals. Finding an AC shop that will accept the liability for this kind of innovative repair will be very difficult. It seem that declining jobs that has any appreciable liability risk is an artifact of modern society (oh, I digress).
This is not going to be a quick, easy, and inexpensive repair; regardless of the approach. If it’s at all possible to find a salvaged or NOS hose (regardless of price), that is going to be the most expedient solution. Probably not what you want to hear.
Either repairing the hose or building a clone is a minor engineering job and will take some time. From an image on the net of an MHE7340BA, it LOOKS like the hose consists of:
HOWEVER, before doing anything, someone has to verify the precise specifications of all these fittings. I don’t have a 1990s XJS. Maybe someone who does, can verify all of the dimensions.
To repair the hose it properly, the approach would be to cut off the beadlock ends and braze on new beadlock ends to the pipes. Strangely enough, they’re called “beadlock braze fittings”. Shops that do custom AC for hot rods can do this.
To make a clone, my approach would be to find a peanut pad to o-ring adapter (they exist) and then have a custom hose made with o-ring fitting to o-ring fitting (with service port). The o-ring to o-ring hose is just more straightforward to fabricate than integrating the peanut pad into the hose.
Best of luck,
Ron
Ron,
Thank you. I have not heard back from the fabricator, but I am trying to investigate the following:
The fitting that connects back to the compressor is salvageable. It’s a one-piece part with nothing that can really go wrong. Cut the old crimp off, and it’s ready for re-use.
The other side has clearly had issues. I was hoping that the schrader valve could be replaced, but I suppose it’s not that easy. I did manage to look up the same hose for an x300, and while the compressor end is absolutely different, the condenser end appears to be the same! I just need someone to confirm that it is indeed an M20x2.5, which is what I think the thread has to be.
That part for the x300 not only exists in the aftermarket world, by URO, but it appears to be available from JDHT as well! I think my best bet could be to snag that part, and salvage the condenser end to create a suitable replacement part!
By the way, I was not successful in finding a new compressor end. The most optimistic places, places that specialize in fabricating custom refrigerant lines have not been able to help.
Yikes, metric AC fittings! That is a complication.
The schrader valve itself in the service port is easily replaced. It just unscrews like a tire valve. Unfortunately, the beadlock crimp failure is the more severe problem.
If your local fabricator cannot or will not braze new beadlock crimps to your metric ends, hod rod specialists may be more accommodating. A company that I used heavily a while back, Doc’s Blocks in AR, seems to be extinct. I don’t believe that Old Air and Vintage Air do custom fabrications, but they might have some recommendations. I’ve heard of ColdHose in FL, but I’ve have not dealt with them.
Ron
Here’s another twist. I went in to remove the three o-rings, since I know they should be replaced while I’m in there. JDHT has three unique part numbers for these o-rings as follows:
Great. That seems easy, except #2 is NLA. It also lists this part as being 0.375" in diameter, which doesn’t make any sense at all.
No problem, I’ll find something to match it at the parts store.
I go to pull the o-rings and #1 and #2 are identical. Both 1-9/64"OD and 55/64"ID and 9/64" thick.
I don’t seem to have had o-ring #3 at all, where the hose connected to the condenser!
I think I’m going to order these parts through the Jag dealership to see what they give me? I’ll order two #1 and a #3…and some Kung Pao Chicken.
Isn’t it possible these are metric o-rings? My 94 XJ40 Sanden/Aeroquip R134A system is all metric …just sayin …
O-Rings ordered from the dealer. Unless there’s something odd, I won’t be updating anyone on this.
As for the hose? Colliflower Total Hose & Fittings did not disappoint. Went to a local office in Manassas, they shipped the hose up to their Baltimore Fabrication Shop. They crimped on the old metals ends on to a new Good Year Galaxy brand hose, (significantly thicker OD, same ID) and brazed on a new schrader valve! They threw in one of the o-rings I needed when I asked, but because they didn’t have the ones that connected back to the compressor, I purchased it from the dealer when I placed my order.
Stopped by a parts store looking for suitable o-rings, but they all seemed too thin, so I didn’t bother.
They returned all of the old parts, so I still have the old schrader. It is certainly not removeable/serviceable. The old schrader valve seems to have a plasticky pin, the new one is metal.
Final bill? $115 plus tax. Assuming I could still find the hose at the dealer, I found prices starting at $220, up to $300. I would recommend using these guys if you live in one of the several states they operate in.
I have a manual caliper in inches only. My digital caliper eats through batteries for some reason… that one reads both metric and imperial.
The point of that post was really to point out that there seem to be two different part numbers for something seemingly identical in every way. (#1 and #2)
The AC schrader valve is indeed replaceable on the original hose! I used two adjustable wrenches and managed to open it up! I probably just needed to replace that o-ring and it would have been fixed!
Maybe replace the valve itself as well?
That being said, I still would have needed someone else to replace the crimps at both ends.
The new brazed on fitting does not look like it can be opened…it looks like a solid single piece.
For anyone else reading this it should cost much less than what I paid to refurbish this NLA hose!
I wanted to warn anyone interested in KSG114116; it’s not an o-ring I recognize. It certainly does not fit into the o-ring recess at the hose connection to the compressor as indicated on JDHT. KRC1154 is probably the one that I needed, but it’s NLA.
Being more thorough, after the case of course, I found that the correct part appears to be JLM11098 to the compressor. Still available!
Also, which would have saved me a ton of money, both high and low pressure schrader valves, with o-rings, are available. MHD7372AA and MHD7372BA for the high and low, respectively. Again, both available.
Last addition to this post, just to make sure I have as much documented as possible:
High side schrader has a 10mm x 1.25 fine thread.
Low side schrader has a 12mm x 1.50 fine thread.
You’ll need HNBR o-rings for these valves. OEM replacement valves from the dealer did not come with the o-ring. (At least the low side I bought did not, perhaps the high side does?)
I believe both valves will take an A011 size o-ring, which is 5/16" x 7/16" x 1/16".
The compressor o-rings seemed to work well with an A211 size o-ring which is 13/16" x 1-1/16" x 1/8". Although available, the dealer did not have this in stock. They wanted $8 a piece for each o-ring. I bought a whole set from Harbor Freight for $10.