Where did you find one for $100.00? I will know if my attempt at a repair works or not. over the weekend. Based on my results I will have to evaluate the situation and make a plan accordingly.
I donât remember exactly but try typing in evaporator core for 92 xjs, something should come up.
Good luck
Nordy
Well I guess I wonât know about the LaCo heat seal until later in the week. The package did not arrive today as scheduled so I tracked it. It now says Thursday due to a predictive delay by USPS. I could see a one day delay on 2 day shipping but a 5 day delay? WTF
Well, I performed the repair using the Laco heat seal this afternoon. It sure appeared to fill in the crack, I sanded it smooth, cleaned everything up, assembled the muffler with additional teflon sealant. I pulled a vacuum for about an hour. Although it is holding the vacuum better than before, it has still dropped a little after 4 hours. I will see how it does overnight but I am not encouraged. I just pulled the trigger on a new evaporator. Fortunately it is still cold in Vermont and the roads are salt covered so I wouldnât take it out for a cruise yet anyway. At least it will give me an chance to replace all of the foam inside it and get a good look at everything.
At this stage I personally would be considering epoxying the nut to the evaporator, thus sealing the crack on the outside. What gave you got to lose? Sounds better than changing the evaporator?
I donât think epoxying the nut would seal it unless you epoxy the threads and the gap around the tube. Basically, a huge glob. Still, knowing what is involved in replacing that evap, I might try it.
And I might relocate that muffler if it caused all this.
When I repaired my condenser with the laco, I covered the laco repair (which is quite brittle) with a sleeve of jb weld.
The idea being to reinforce it and hopefully prevent flexing/cracking from vibration.
Great ideas but I think I covered this with the teflon sealant. I smeared it inside and outside on the threads even going so far as to smooth the excess under the nut to create a seal there. At this point I am afraid that the evaporator has a leak somewhere else. I donât think it would be a good idea to try brazing the fitting in situ as it would probably catch the car on fire along with my house. Even though I had aluminum flashing protecting the surrounding areas, the goo that is smeared around bulb started bubbling and smoking and the foam at the firewall started to melt. I fear the heat required to braze the crack would be too much.
I am not looking forward to the major undertaking involved in replacing the evaporator but it will give me a chance to correct any deficiencies.
I was going to ask you earlier when you did the pressure test if there was a possible leak somewhere else âŚYou know, the leak may be somewhere other than the evap, for instance the ports can be troublesome âŚany seepage there?
I found my leak because of the dye in the system. I picked up a powerful 21 LED UV flashlight on Ebay, drove to a VERY dark spot and shone it all around the A/C components.
The hole on the condenser glowed BRIGHT green on my car.
Is it possible thereâs still moisture in there? Because that would look like a leak; as the moisture gradually vaporizes, the vacuum would diminish.
That is entirely possible. I went ahead and put the new aluminum compressor in as well as a new filter/dryer. I pulled a vacuum for over an hour and so far so good, but it is too early to tell for sure. I did use a UV light to check for evidence of a leak and the only sign was underneath the compressor. It could be that those pesky oârings at the back of the compressor were also leaking. I am hoping for better results than before.
Would the vacuum drop by half due to moisture? After I repaired the fitting the vacuum did not go to zero as it had done previously. It dropped to about 15 and didnât seem to go any lower.
That sounds like moisture to me.
Success! the vacuum remained steady overnight.
I finally took the time to put refrigerant into the system today, after verifying that the vacuum had remain constant for the last 2 weeks. The car now has fully functioning A/C. I guess time will tell how long it holds but I am cautiously opimistic.
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The general rule of thumb is that the system should be pumped down for **at least" 30 minutes. Of course the longer the better but 30 minutes should be enough time to boil off any moisture. Then if the system holds that vacuum (remember the amount of vacuum you can pull depends on your height above sea level) for 24 hours you can consider the system leak free. But also remember that a vacuum tends to seal any HOSE leaks whereas when they are under pressure the opposite is true. So that sometimes explains why systems slowly leak even after theyâve vacuum checked good.
So you replaced the evaporator and the condenser. How dirty was your original evaporator when you removed it? When I pulled the evaporator out of my '89 XJ40 it was about 50% clogged with grease and debris and absolutely filthy.
Remember that what youâre doing is boiling the water out. When you pull a vacuum, you lower the boiling point of any moisture in there, and it starts boiling (vaporizing). How long it takes depends on how much moisture is in there! It also depends somewhat on conditions; the moisture will boil faster on a hot day than on a cold day.
Even when itâs all vaporized, the system will still have water vapor in it. So, ideally, the next thing to do is introduce dry nitrogen into the system in such a way that it pushes any water vapor around to where it gets sucked out by the vacuum pump. If you wanna cheat, you can use a bit of refrigerant instead of dry nitrogen; blow it in and suck it right back out to get as much of the moisture out as possible.
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I did not replace the evaporator or condenser. My immediate goal was to get the A/C functioning for our trip in June. I did receive the new evaporator but now that the crack is sealed and the A/C is working I will make this a winter project for the next winter. Summer here is so short that I donât want to waste any more time with such a major project right now.
I did flush them both several times trying to get them as clean as possible.
I canât seem to find a new condenser so that could be a problem.
Kirbert, I did put nitrogen into the system and vacuumed it back out before recharging the system. Thanks for all of your help along the way.
Nordy,
Can you share any info on the replacement from inside the car.
I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that the evaporator could only be replaced by pulling the engine and dropping the transmission.
Even if I have to take apart the whole dash, and the steering wheel, airbag and steering column, Iâm willing to tackle that.
Thanks!
-Phil