You are supposed to have an AC pro remove the coolant from your system. Venting the gas into the air is not recommended.

Be very careful with the ac gauges when you hook them up. If you were to accidently open either the high or low side knobs without a can of coolant or compressor attached, all of your coolant would vent out of the system out the end of the yellow or center hose. You would not want that to happen, because it will cause your system to loose all gas and pressure. Anytime there is an accidental release, point the yellow hose away from you and the car so the oil and gas to not come in contact with your car or your skin. When you connect up the gauges, they will tell you if any pressure is in the system.

To replace the compressor you will have to at least pop up the drivers side of the car. I put a jack stand and left Inga leaning. This is a top and bottom side job, you do not want the fender too high since you will be needing to reach in the top a couple of times.

Loosen the bolt on the power steering pump that runs thought the accessory bushings. Loosen the 10 mm bolt that tensions the belt and pop the belt off the pump.

Take the large air intake hose off and find the hidden 13mm nut on the top back side of the mounting bracket. If you slide your hand down the top back side of the bracket, you will feel an round headed bolt. The nut is on the other side of the bracket and you will need to remove the nut and pop the bolt out. Now loosen the bottom side bolts that run through the accessory bushings. Take a 10 mm socket and crank the belt adjustment bolt CCW until the AC belt can be taken off. then you can remove the bolts that hold the compressor bracket to the accessory bushings. There are several bolts with varying degrees of difficulty that you will have to remove to get the compressor loose from the mounting bracket.

I pulled the radiator cowl off to give me more room on the creeper when working under the car by the way. Getting the hoses off was a bit of a struggle at first. Ended up taking them off from the top side, did not want to dangle the compressor and then try to remove them.

Took the compressor out and put the new one in via the bottom front of the car. Put the R134 fitting on the compressor before putting the new one in the car. Lifted up the compressor and propped it up so I could connect the hoses. Got the new o-rings on and the lines snug before putting the new compressor up on the bracket and installing the mounting hardware if memory serves. You can get some cork or rubber stoppers and plug up the holes in the compressor. That will help prevent oil loss when you are moving things around and into place,

The low side connection which points towards the frame can be a PITA to connect a hose too. I have an older cheaper set of hoses that will reach. The better and more expensive set would not fit without loosening the compressor belt. To over come that problem I left the belt off the compressor and vacuumed the system without getting anything tight. Then new gauges did not leak at vacuum and the old ones did was the reason. Then connected the old set after getting it all tight with the belts on to do the fill.

May I suggest you snap a few picts as you go so if there are fit issues you can refer back to how it was before.

Good Luck and get your cool on,

Paul