A/C Repair

[Jeff Enderwick]

Hi.

I have a leaky hose on the high pressure side of my A/C compressor.
I understand that because I'll be exposing the system internals
to the atmosphere, I'll need to use some sort of vacuum pump to suck
the air out of the system.

1) Are these pumps expensive, or can they be rented ?
2) Do I really need to do this, or can I just fill the system and go ?
3) Is there anything special I need to know about this repair ?
( Do I need any special locking compounds, etc )

thanks,

Jeff

PS: Re: CV joints - The best deal I could find on new, factory CV
joints (from LUMBRO) was $130. To whoever found joints for $50.
each - Where can I get that deal ? Will they ship ?

[j...@dev7d.mdcbbs.com]

In article <1991Aug5.1...@oakhill.sps.mot.com>, je...@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Jeff Enderwick) writes:

> I have a leaky hose on the high pressure side of my A/C compressor.
> I understand that because I'll be exposing the system internals
> to the atmosphere, I'll need to use some sort of vacuum pump to suck
> the air out of the system.

My recommendation is not to do this yourself (environmental reasons,
dangerous etc).

> PS: Re: CV joints - The best deal I could find on new, factory CV
> joints (from LUMBRO) was $130. To whoever found joints for $50.
> each - Where can I get that deal ? Will they ship ?

What year was your car again? A Lo"bro (sp?) (=OEM) CVJ can be had for
~ $50 each ... Try WolfSport & couple others (mailorder)
Locally I go to the Engine Compartment in Redondo Bch, CA.
Dunno if he ships.

There has been some talk about the durability of the VW CVJs.
The reason why they perish early is:

- Contamination (small tear in the boot => grit => bye bye)
- Grease decomposition: Use only the best quality grease.
- Earlier VWs had the CVJs much more exposed than the newer VWs.
My 81 S tore roughly 4 boots in it's lifetime. So far, our 86 GTI
only 1 (75 k miles).

They can easily last 100 000 miles if you check for tears often
(black slime on the inner rims) & replace the boots immediatly!
It's also a good idea to "repack" the outer ones every 50 k miles
because they are subject to alot of heat => grease decomposes
I usually wait until a boot rips & then do them both, because...
WolfSport recommends swapping the CVJs left to right so that you
wear the "other" surfaces.
Doing the job yourself isn't too bad, just greasy. The cost
of the tools is recovered after 1 CVJ.

Jan

[Dan B. Kasha]

Do not use 'grease' to repack CV joints. They require a special
high pressure grease, that unfortunately cost a bit, something
like 5 bucks a joint, but it is clearly different from wheel
bearing grease.
Dan Kasha

[Andrew Evans]

When you buy either a boot kit or a new CV joint, you get the molybdenum
sulfide grease supplied with the kit anyway. Now, if you're stupid
enough to toss those out and use the old white lithium grease, I don't
pity you.

[Mike Corcoran]

In article <1991Aug5.1...@oakhill.sps.mot.com> je...@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Jeff Enderwick) writes:
> Jeff
>
>
> PS: Re: CV joints - The best deal I could find on new, factory CV
> joints (from LUMBRO) was $130. To whoever found joints for $50.
> each - Where can I get that deal ? Will they ship ?

The post was talking about CV joint REPAIR KITS. All those are
,as I recall(I rebuilt mine the 1st time 4-5 years ago), are the
internal balls, grease, boots and possibly some other HW. The first
time you do this it'll take you an hour or so each way to remove
and replace the shafts. Each shaft has an inner and outer joint. They
have slightly different replacement procedures. Each joint will take
you 1/2 - 1 hour to rebuild. Its much easier to get rebuilt shafts
at about $100-$125 each and spend the couple of hours to just drop
out the old ones and slide in the new(I did this the second time).
Foreign Auto Supply(FAS) got me rebuilts out of LA and they've
worked fine for the last couple of years.