Re: high side A/C charging port P/N?
Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2019 6:52 pm
The answer to the question of 'what size socket does it take' is 'it depends'! It depends on your point of view. The charging port itself is all 8-sided, and on the OEM charging port, it is easy to miss that when staring at the 16mm 'double' hex fitting on the extension. It just looks like you have a 16mm hex on the extension to hold things in place, and a 16mm hex at the base of the charging port. Noooooooooooooo.
I got some time out in the shop this afternoon, and decided that I'd need to recharge the A/C in the car so I can go 'drive cycle' it for the stupid O2 sensor thing, so figured I'd replace the fitting while it's low.
The tube-side fitting is a 16mm hex. That's way down the extension for the charging port. If you look carefully just inboard of the slot for the gauge hose connector to catch onto, you'll see another 'flat-sided' flange. THIS is the 8-point flange some engineer decided NEEDED to be 8-sided and not a hex fitting. Also note, that the flat sides are neither metric, nor SAE. A 16 mm socket will fit loosely, but when you turn it, it'll jamb against the rounded corners, and still get you nowhere, except with a stuck socket. I used a 16mm open ended wrench to hold the tube-side of the extension, so I didn't break anything there and a smooth jawed Crescent wrench on the charging port itself. As David mentioned, it didn't take much to break it loose, and I likewise didn't put too much torque on it putting it back together.
I did drop a drop of PAG oil on the o-ring, just in case, and a couple of drops of oil into the inverted charging port before turning it over to insert into the line extension. I hope that takes care of any oil I may have lost with this process.
Pulled a vacuum. Charged it up. It didn't take quite 2 LBS of freon to make the air coming out the vents about 52 deg sitting still in our shop. We'll see how it does on the road.
I got some time out in the shop this afternoon, and decided that I'd need to recharge the A/C in the car so I can go 'drive cycle' it for the stupid O2 sensor thing, so figured I'd replace the fitting while it's low.
The tube-side fitting is a 16mm hex. That's way down the extension for the charging port. If you look carefully just inboard of the slot for the gauge hose connector to catch onto, you'll see another 'flat-sided' flange. THIS is the 8-point flange some engineer decided NEEDED to be 8-sided and not a hex fitting. Also note, that the flat sides are neither metric, nor SAE. A 16 mm socket will fit loosely, but when you turn it, it'll jamb against the rounded corners, and still get you nowhere, except with a stuck socket. I used a 16mm open ended wrench to hold the tube-side of the extension, so I didn't break anything there and a smooth jawed Crescent wrench on the charging port itself. As David mentioned, it didn't take much to break it loose, and I likewise didn't put too much torque on it putting it back together.
I did drop a drop of PAG oil on the o-ring, just in case, and a couple of drops of oil into the inverted charging port before turning it over to insert into the line extension. I hope that takes care of any oil I may have lost with this process.
Pulled a vacuum. Charged it up. It didn't take quite 2 LBS of freon to make the air coming out the vents about 52 deg sitting still in our shop. We'll see how it does on the road.