it is a harbour freight a/c guage set. to tell you the truth i never thought about renting them from auto stores.

yes i am under the impression and i haven't researched it but was told -1 atmosphere is a perfect vacuum .

 

i never even thought about renting gauges from auto parts stores. my guages are from harbour freight.

and yes i was told by a mechanic that -1 atmosphere is perfect vacuum. i have never actually researched this but that was what i was told. and my guage has a -1 for when pulling vacuum. he also told me to spin the compressor clutch wheel to get the last little bit of freon and other gases out that may be trapped in the compressor.

 

okay now that i got to looking at my gauges better and not just off memory. my memory was incorrect. it is -1bar.. there is also measurements like ur gauges. i never use those so never paid it much attention.

also i finally got the orifice tube out and replaced yet it is still freezing that entire line. while i am charging the system.

 

How did the orifice tube look? Black, dirty, metal shavings?

I checked -1 Bar = -15 PSI so I would go down to -2 Bar you need to get down to -30 PSI to boil out any moisture in the system and I would pull the vacuum for one hour to be sure.

Is it very cold out now maybe it’s too cold to run it that’s why it’s freezing.

I still say too much moisture in the system read these loads of help on auto A/C.


#1 Auto A/C FAQ's

#2 Auto A/C FAQ's

#3 Vacuum and the auto A/C

#4 Can you rely on your low side manifold gauge?

 

the orifice tube was black but no physical debris noted. this could also be due to me trying to use a pressure washer to get the orifice tube out. the ambient temp here when i was charging the system was 75 degrees. which the low side should be 35-45 and high side 150-165.

when the orifice tube metal line freezes my low side is around 90 and my high side is around 80-100

i even pulled vacuum for a full 1/2hour this time.

also with my gauges in front of me. -1bar = -30inHg like on ur gauge.it doesn't go any lower than that. also i do guess i am using the inHg when looking at my a/c pressures. just never paid that close attention to it. i just always looked at the -1bar for vacuum because it is a little bigger writing. there are a few other forums of measurement on my gauges i just usually don't pay attention to them.

 

 

okay all done and fixed. it was the seals on my low and high side connectors from my gauges that were bad. i went and bought a new set of gauges to see if that was my problem and it was.

bought the one year warranty and i will take the old set back and have them swapped out or returned in a couple months. its 75-80 degrees outside right now and my low side is 35-40 and high side is 200-215 at idel.

 

Thats great nice fix

One point when doing this your Idle should a tad higher than normal idle insert a credit card thick piece of something to bring the Idle higher then check your gauge set you will get more accurate results