I will also be doing this to my 1999 2500 V10 in the next week or 2. Glad I found this thread. Anyone have any adidtional helpful hints. It looks like you do not have to take the face of the dash off correct? What acually fails on the evap the body or return bends, and from vibration? Looks like quite a lot of Dodge trucks have the same problem. Also I do not see where you have to do anything with the rt air bag?
I picked up a set of those "China" Freight Tools A/C Manifold gauges - work and are pretty good quality. I no longer guess at whether or not I have the correct amount of R134 - its right on and I havent had A/C probs since using it. I also checked the owners manual on my 99 Dodge Ram 1500 360 5.9 V8 and it states specifically when using "Max" A/C that once you get the temp comfortable, you should switch to Non-Max setting. I did that and have noticed that it works great when doing so. It also drips mega-condensation, too - something it hardly does on Max.(?) But I now reserve use of the Max a/c to what the owner manual states and when I am in sitting traffic (dont like breathing other car's exhaust) and extreme conditions, using non-max when on highway (moving). Since I started this practice my A/C is working awesome (not to mention that the gauges helped). Note - I also had a water hose running water over my condensor and set the R134 can in a bowl of hot tapwater when filling - seen that on Davidsfarm instructional video (utube) and another great A/C maintenance Utube video - worked for me . . .
Still trying to find time to do this. I put some stop leak in and added some charge seems to be holding charge for now. Only time is holding me from doing it now. Any answers for the questions on my last post?
Still trying to find time to do this. I put some stop leak in and added some charge seems to be holding charge for now. Only time is holding me from doing it now. Any answers for the questions on my last post?
I asked about the airbags and was told to just unhook the battery 30mins before you start. No idea on why it leaks yet myself. Once the water gets better out (cooler) I will replace mine. I got all my parts on Sat from rockauto.
OMG. That was painful. Did mine today. took 3 hours to get it apart. I didn't have the directions. Just did it via memory. 2hours to rebuild the heat box (had to redo some of the weather stripping that feel apart..) and then started putting it together around 3pm and finished charging the system at 6:30. so about 3 1/2 hours to put together.. 1 hour auto part store run and lowes run to get some weather stripping. 30mins for lunch and 10mins for bathroom and beer breaks.. Not issues other then running out of beer. but I was surprised what I found on the evaporator..
Eww! did fine the green dye on the evap. so guess it really was leaking Heater core looked good, but replaced it aways..
Thanks everyone for the instructions, pics, and tips. Did my heater core and evap on Sat and everything went great. Only thing I can add is to remember to hook the vacuum line up in the engine compartment. I made sure I had enough beer before I started!
OK, got my heater core from Rock Auto (http://www.rockauto.com) and it is the exact match to the OE core. It's copper/brass wrapped in foam. I got some foam from a local hobby store to replace the piece that goes between the core pipes and the firewall. Here is what the new setup looks like:
Heater core looked good, but replaced it aways..
