1957 Aftermarket a/c condenser access | Ford Thunderbird club group 1955-2005 T-Bird models

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1957 Aftermarket a/c condenser access

  • Thread starter Thread starter TbirdFan76
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TbirdFan76

TbirdFan76

Bronze Member
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Thunderbird Year
1957
My a/c condenser has refrigerant leaks from the connections, likely the O rings based on the visible dye on it. The condenser is mounted in front of the radiator.

Would the best way to access the aftermarket a/c condenser be to remove the grill?

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TbirdFan76 said:
My a/c condenser has refrigerant leaks from the connections, likely the O rings based on the visible dye on it. The condenser is mounted in front of the radiator.

Would the best way to access the aftermarket a/c condenser be to remove the grill?
Click to expand...
From what I've seen RRing the grill is a lot of work and it may not give you the access you want to the connectors. Another option is to get to them by reverse of how the condenser's are usually installed. It will depend somewhat on how they mounted the condenser but what I would do is remove the radiator, which is very easy to do, and then, depending on how they mounted the condenser, you will need to loosen four bolts to slip the mounts out and then you can position it to get to the hose connections. It might be that you have to remove the round access cover that's down below the grill and get your hand/wrench up there to remove bolts if they bolted the condenser mounting in from that side in a way different them I've seen these done. It's also possible that you need to remove the other ends of the hoses to get enough free play in the hoses to move things to where you can get to the ones that are leaking. I made a video of the process when I installed AC on my 57. You can watch it and you'll get a good idea of how the condenser is commonly mounted. You'll see that on mine I probably could get to the hose connectors once the radiator is out. If you do decide to go at it by taking the grill out please come back and let us know how that went.
 
Ok, it's one year later and I have not addressed the issue with my AC and it's been unbearably hot this summer.

My problem is the compressor won't take any new refrigerant. It isn't a defective cut-off switch as the compressor does function when the air is turned on. I've watched many YouTube videos on various things that might be the cause and I've eliminated all those I've seen in the videos.

Last year I rented an ac vacuum and gauge set to evacuate and recharge the system I still can't get enough refrigerant in to get cold air.
 
TbirdFan76 said:
Ok, it's one year later and I have not addressed the issue with my AC and it's been unbearably hot this summer.

My problem is the compressor won't take any new refrigerant. It isn't a defective cut-off switch as the compressor does function when the air is turned on. I've watched many YouTube videos on various things that might be the cause and I've eliminated all those I've seen in the videos.

Last year I rented an ac vacuum and gauge set to evacuate and recharge the system I still can't get enough refrigerant in to get cold air.
Click to expand...

To go back to both basics and mistakes I have made in the past... Are you sure you evacuated the system? I ask because having the valves on the hose/manifold turned to the wrong position is not that hard to do. Depending on the set you have there can be two valves on each hose. Plus there is the shreader type valve in the systems fitting. Some hose sets don't fit well and don't open the shreader valve. So it's possible you had the pump hooked up and running and pulling a vacuum but only on the gauge set hoses, not the system itself. Also possible you didn't have the valves on the manifold open. In my most recent AC redo (not the tbird) after I fully evacuated the system I was able to put almost the entire 134a charge in by letting the vacuum suck it in by holding the cans upside down so liquid got sucked in. In the past I always did vapor and got very little vapor sucked in initially and had to run the compressor. This last time I didn't even need the engine or compressor running till 3/4 of the charge was in. I'm not trying to say you don't know how to do it... I have done several systems and still manage to set the manifold valves wrong from time to time... and in the most recent case, had a heck of a time with the high side because the shreader valve and my hose adaptor did not like each other.
 
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