Well, while I was playing with this, I also thought to see why my AC wasn't working. I thought that perhaps there just wasn't enough r12 in the system to run the compressor, but I wanted to verify that the compressor was functional.

So, I read here a while back that you could jump the leads from the filter and get the compressor to run even if there wasn't enough juice in the system. So I grabbed something metallic while the engine was running, and completed the circuit.

The compressor started shooting oil! Immediately I disconnected my jumper, and went to see what was wrong. I couldn't determine where the problem was, but I was sure I had a busted hose or something catastrophic going on. So to make sure, I jumpered it back up and leaned over to see where things were coming from.

To make a long story short, one of the tubes had worked itself loose from the compressor. I have no AC. My hopes of just 'getting it working' with Freeze12 or some other cheapie solution are dashed. Looks like a full r134a retrofit is in my future.
--
~Richard~
* 1986 Volvo 245 DL
* 1996 Plymouth Grand Voyager SE