Good Day Folks;
As it is beautiful hot summer day here my son Barrie and I attacked the A/C in the mighty '88 240. The car has a new compressor, condenser, drier, expansion valve and to complete the package, the thermostatic A/C switch that connects near the expansion valve. The compressor is new, as is the drier and the condenser. We bled off the Freon R134 that was in there, and when the system was open, I connected an air line and gently blew out the lines to make sure there were no blockages. Then Barrie installed the new expansion valve and thermostat under the dash and we connected everything back up. Then I attached an air line and charged it with 20 PSI of compressed air, and sprayed the connections with soapy water to check for leaks. That done, I connected my freshly refurbished Robinair vacuum pump and let 'er suck for about 45 minutes. Now the Haynes manual says that the car holds 45.2 oz of Freon 12 and using an 80% charge for Freon R134 I injected (3) 12 oz cans into the system. We have 65 degree air in the car at 85 degrees OAT, the low side says 30 PSI at 2000 RPM and the high side is 250 PSI.
Now the question, do I add one more can to get 40-45 PSI at 2000 RPM? At idle we have 50 PSI on the low side. The car has no aux cooling fan and the car relies only on the engine driven fan for condenser / radiator air flow. I think the car needs an aux fan to ensure adequate airflow across the condenser at low speeds. Is the car supposed to have an aux coooling fan as original equipment? Barrie will make a test run in the car to see what develops once the car is rolling.
Regards;
Mike Coleman
North Lancaster, Ontario, Canada
1988 Volvo 240 Stationwagon, 293,000 miles,
1992 Volvo 740 Stationwagon, 189,000 miles,
1984 300D, 310,000 miles, Cafe au Lait
1986 300SDL, 204,000 miles,
1998 GMC Safari, 404,000 kms
1991 Ford Coachmen