I spent the afternoon today running around. I got my used compressor from a bone yard in Orlando, picked up a new drier and the ac line disconnect tool set at Auto Zone, they were the only parts store that had the correct one plus I had a $20.00 credit on my rewards card. Went to Harbor Freight and picked out a compressor and a few other odds and ends. Tried to use a 25% off coupon on the compressor and it would not work. Read the fine print on the coupon and saw the coupons do not apply to compressors..Bummer. I figured well for that kind of money I can probably get a better deal somewhere else. Went to Home Depot, Lowe's and Walmart, nothing was really available in my price range. I don't need a huge capacity compressor, it just needs to move enough aire to blow out the evap, condenser and AC hoses. I did find an off brand pancake style compressor at Kmart. $69.00 and it includes the hose, blow gun, couplers and even has a brad nailer with it. It may be junk but I bought it anyway. I bought a can of the AC Pro flush at Napa today too, it was about $20.00.

Junk yard did not have a condenser for my truck so I will try to flush mine out. If it goes well I will re-use it. Now I need to get the PAG oil after work tomorrow and may get started on replacing parts when I get home. I will have a shop re-charge the system for me, it needs a vacuum pulled again and I want to be sure I have the right amount of freon and the pressures are reading correct when this is all done. I hope to be done with this by Saturday. So far I have about $350.00 into this job. After getting the system charged it should be around $425.00.

Jimmy

 

when you get everything put back together. pressurize the the a/c system before you go to the shop. let sit for a while 45 minutes to an hour should be good. if it holds the same pressure reading then you are good to go. if it drops a little bit, then start spaying things down with soapy water and look for the bubbles.

if there is a leak. it is pointless to even pull a vacuum. the vacuum will pull in noncompresables.

 

I ordered a new condenser just now from Advance. Also got a bottle of the Ice 32 PAG 100 oil and a new orifice tube. I will pick it all up at the store tomorrow. I do not want any problems with this job and sure don't want to be doing it all over again any time soon so I figure it was cheap insurance. I used the TRT30 discount code and saved $50.00 too.

Jimmy

 

DakAz, i like that idea of using a newer set up !
Could you give me/us more instructions on how to ? Very hard ?
I have been without a/c for 2 years.
I had a shop work on it a couple years ago and the a/c lasted a couple weeks. Both times they but a charge and dye in, it failed and they said they didn't know what to do. I do know they used an after market compressor. I tried a system leak fix to no avail. I do know from my searching now, i will use OEM, which is Sanden Canada.
thanks for any info...

 

It was a lot of custom work

first finding the correct needed newer Dakota tubes you need parts from a 2001 to 2003 Dakota.

It cost me a bit of money to do so its not a cheap DIY thing and a custom A/C shop made the needed changes for the hose ends.

So you need to have an A/C shop that can do that kind of custom work for you.

I purchased a number of junkyard ebay A/C tubing as a start then had the shop customize them as needed.

You will also need to make a custom bracket to hold the newer A/C Receiver Drier / Accumulator not all that hard but takes a bit of knowhow.

I'm not even finished as I'm also going to change out the radiator and A/C condenser to a newer 2000 to 2003 Dakota models easy to do but cost money.

Not sure what year your Dakota is or V6 or V8 as that could be harder to do my 2.5 engine made it a bit easy to get my hands in the engine bay to get things done.

Well that's a start for ya

 

The key two needed parts are in this Pic the tube that comes out of the cab into the A/C Receiver Drier / Accumulator and the other end that comes out of the A/C Receiver Drier / Accumulator into your compressor.

The first part is not in need of any custom work but the hose from the A/C Receiver Drier / Accumulator to the compressor is the custom A/C work needed you may need other custom hose work done on the hose from the compressor to the condenser it just depends on what ebay tubing you find.

This was my first A/C Receiver Drier / Accumulator canister mount not pretty but it worked later I made the better mount for it like the bottom Pic.




In this Pic you can see another custom Hose I had made-up all I can say is I needed it you may not.

The shop charged me $80 a custom hose mount job if I remember but you must bring your own parts so they can make the hose for you.

 

Today I put in my bone yard compressor, new drier, and new condenser. Flushed out the lines with a can of AC Pro Flush aerosol. I had second thoughts about that compressor I bought at Kmart, so I returned it and bought a small compressor and a 25 foot polyethelene hose at Harbor Freight. I blew out the lines with it, it did a pretty good job for a $50.00 1/3 hp compressor.

I bought a set of ac line coupler tools at Autozone, but could not get the lines loose. I pulled and tugged but I was worried I would break my evap lines so I just flushed it from the one line at the drier and at the orifice tube coupling. I did not see much dirt or metal flakes in what came out the lines, it was pretty clean for having a bad compressor. later I found out I did not have the right size AC line tool, I had bought the generic universal set of 4 tools, but Advance sells a set of 6 tools that has the one for the fittings on a Dakota. If anyone needs to know, it's the blue one.

I also had a problem with the fixed orifice tube. I got the old one out easily enough but the new one would not go in all the way. I broke the first one trying to wiggle it in place, got another one and spent a long time trying to get it in the line. Finally I figured there must be something wrong with the line. It has an aluminum-wrapped insulation foam on the outside so I could not tell much from looking at it but I could not see any debris or anything inside the line that would block the tube from seating. I put everything back together and took it to the shop to get it re-charged, the guy popped off the line and found that the tube was twisted slightly, probably from taking the tube out last Monday and again today. That was why the tube would not go in like it should. The lines are aluminum and can easily get bent or kinked.

So I left my truck at the shop, they will keep it overnight and replace the kinked AC line and charge the system tomorrow. I hope that will be the end of this ordeal. So far I have about $350.00 into this repair, probably will add another $100.00 just for the ac line because none of the parts stores list it on their web sites. The new line will probably have to come from Dodge who probably won't have it in stock. Maybe they can straighten my OEM hose. At least I did 80% of the work myself and it cost a lot less than if I had just had the shop do the whole job..

If much else happens with my truck I may sell it and get something else. I am not super crazy about the 3rd gen Dakota's but would not really turn one down if the miles were low and the price was right. A full size Ram from about 2004 on up would be good too. I have spent a lot of money, blood and sweat on my truck here in the last year or so. I like my truck a lot, and am very glad it is paid for but I am starting to wonder at what point do I stop putting money in repairs and parts?

Jimmy

 

Did you replace the complete orifice tube line that cost $30 or just the orifice tube that's $1

The $1 part was all you needed

Of coarse the hard part is getting the old $1 part out of the line you must back pressure it out as its usually stuck in the tube.

Some people have a hard time with the disconnect tools its a finesse thing using the smaller of the needed rings works better I found out.

 

Orifice tube was what I tried to replace. $2.50 part at Napa. The old tube came out pretty easy. The line itself is still the OEM line. I believe the shop will need to replace it because it is twisted just a little at the orifice tube end, which is why I could not get the orifice tube back in place. Gotta wait and see if they can use what I have or if they can source a new line tomorrow. If that line comes from Dodge I bet it costs every bit of $75.00, maybe more.

Jimmy

 

Well I sure enough got some cold AC now...42.5 degrees at the center vent on my infrared thermometer gun, about the same reading on my analog dial thermometer with the long probe on it. And that was at idle in my driveway after driving the truck home from the shop, about 3 miles from here. Outside temp was about 85 or 86 degrees when I tested my center vent temp.

The shop was able to straighten my AC line to get the orifice tube reinstalled but they charged me half an hour's labor to do it. Total bill today for that and recharging the freon was $196.00. They also put in a dye to check for any leaks in the future. That PAG 100 oil with the ICE 32 additive does make the compressor run smoother with less noise and the system does seem to cool down faster when the truck is first started.

So I spent about $550.00 total fixing my AC and having it charged. That is a lot better than the $1,100.00+ estimate for the shop to do the entire job. I was disappointed in myself for not being able to get the AC line loose and fix the kinked line but for $40.00 and not having to order a new line from Mopar I guess I can't complain. I should be OK now as long as my bone yard compressor holds out.

Thanks very much to all of you who helped me on this.

Jimmy