Not to hyjack the thread but the AC is out on my truck as well. A few years ago the AC went out on mine and the dealer told me that it was the EVAP unit. Gave me a quote of $1200 to fix it. Now my compressor is out and I'm gonna need to fix it. Where is there that you can get the best prices on parts for the AC. I am glad I found this because as soon as they said pull the dash I was like screw that but it doesn't seem that bad.

 

It wasn't that hard just time consuming. I got all my parts from the dealer with the exception of a hose I got from Fishers and R134A from Napa.

 

My Brother and I cut a 3/4 inch slit at the base of the hoses at the firewall with a utility knife. The hoses then came of easily, we cut the hose off at the end of the slit and re-used the hoses(there is enough hose slck to do this).

Using the plastic AC line disconnect tool took some time, one line was bigger than the other, so I used the bigger tool with no luck. Finally went with the smaller tool and it came apart.

I must have some cable not hooked up right, my transmission gear indicator is off 1/2 a spot. Wish I would have read more than 1 page of this thread, pictures would have saved some time. Getting everything back in, probably 45min.-1 hour. Didn't charge AC, it's 20 degrees out. Did this for heater core replacement. I have some pictures that I will post later.
Read about not using the heater core that the hose connectors swivel, I notice no difference in performance on the one I bought from Advance, from the stock one(when it was good). My truck has only 65,000 miles when the stock core went out, so the stock one probably isn't any better than the ones you get from Advance.

 

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. The shop i use wanted 620 to do this job. after reading this I jumped in and tackled it (Heater Core), took about 3 hours start to finish. Did not unhook a\c lines, only had to pull the whole heater\ac assembly away from the firewall about 2 inches in order to get the old core out (I did bend the tubes to make it easy) but the new one with the tubes that will swivel slide right in and fit like a glove. The hardest part was honestly getting the hoses off under the hood. I just ended up cutting the hoses and replacing them. but spent more time jacking with them than any other 1 thing.
Also a must is a 10 and 11mm deep well socket, probably could have saved 30 min if did not have to remove the 2 inside and 4 outside bolts with an end wrench at about 1/8 turn per, But thanks for the pics and info, was perfect.

Rodney

 

vwanddodge. can you supply the part number for the brass and copper heater core that you bought. rock auto list 2 with out much description. 60.00 to 80.00 is alot better than 190.00 from the dealer. do you think it will be sufficent for the subzero temps of northern minnesota. thanks all for your excellant post to this forum. deadeye

 

Looks like I might be doing this soon. Has anyone had any worries about the air bags going off? This is about my only worry so far. Mine is leaking. but not 100% sure where its leaking. going to replace all gaskets, orings, caps and values, pressure sensors and dryer first. If that does not work. Will take a shot at the evap or cond. I added some dye, but cant seem to find anything under hood so far. Not sure if it is actually taking the dye as I cant get the small can the auto part stores are selling now between the low pressure port and the turbo. I can only get it on if I go upside down and it does not seem to take anything.

A/C seems to work good if I put some 1/4 can in. I filled it 3/4 with about 1 can and it worked for a month when it was real warm out. Last weekend I put a 1/2 can and it worked for about 3 days., got pretty chilly out and then warmed back up again and now it does not work. I got the truck in Oct and it was working fine all winter when using defrost..

No one is flushing there system with a/c flush before they refill there system? The last a/c system I had to replace was on a 97 Ford Escort and there was no oil to be found in the compressor (it was leaking around the compressor and the oil all came out. So I flushed the system and filled it with oil based on what the fsm listed.

do we have any inline filters or anything? I just got the fsm's off ebay last week and have not had time to look at the fsm's yet.

 

If you added die and can't see a leak under the hood, don't waste time or money. Just replace the evap core. And the air bags are no big deal, just disconnect the neg battery cable a half hour before you start the work. If you want to be sure about the the core, stop by an ac shop , see what they will charge you to use a real leak detector. The thing will probably start beeping when they open the door since you've put some 134a in recently.

Oh and one more thing, if you follow the diy on here or pavementsucks (I forget where it is) the one thing that is not mentioned is removing the small cable for the shift indicator before you drop the steering column.

 

Good deal. Thanks zman

 

Make sure you clean the die off of the port good, and recheck them both. The valve has been known to stick open slightly and you won't think anything of it because you expect to get some die around there when you put it in. But, my money is on the core. And do your heater core while you have it apart. Replace it with a brass one.

 

Rodney - how is that heater core w/swivel working? also, before you replaced it did you smell radiator fluid when turned on heat?