Wrapped up my week off with some car stuff...
Took the 84 Camaro out for a good 45 minute drive, probably the furthest it's driven in at least a couple years. It usually lives up on the lift so it's a big pain in the butt to get down, and that was made worse by all the crap that was piled around the lift. Now, since I had the car out I moved all the stuff (mostly kids toys) to the shed, so hopefully I'll make use of the car more. Mrs. Firm also drove her 96 Firebird for her day's errands, again, with the garage cleaned out, much easier to access it.
As I'd posted about earlier, the AC compressor in the T/A seized up earlier in the week. Years ago I'd cobbled the system together from used parts, and made a few jerry-rig type fixes over the years to keep it going, so it was long overdue and time to spend a bit of $ and do the job right. So, I ordered a new AC compressor + accumulator + orifice tube and one evening I swapped all the parts over in about an hour. After wrestling for hours doing the same job on the LT1 Firebird, working on this old carb'd 305 was an absolute treat, everything done from the top using the most basic tools.
Then, it came to recharging the system. Typically I just use the DIY kits and the cheap low-side hose they come with, but that's really not the right way to do it. So, I invested the $180 at Harbor Freight and bought a vacuum pump and proper gauge set. Watched some videos to learn how to properly use the stuff, and then went through it this morning....Pulled a vacuum on the system, made sure it held vacuum for 30 minutes (leak check), and then was able to properly recharge being able to watch the pressures on both the high and low sides of the systems. Feels good to do the job right, and I was able to get the vent temps down to 55F, which is really good for a 40 year old car and a system that was designed to run on R12 instead of the R134a it's running now.
Speaking of which, 12oz of R134a here at Wal-Mart is $10, and people here buy the stuff like water. R134a isn't available to the public in Canada, so it's 12a which is $25 for an equivalent volume.
