A/C Line Plumbing Questions Options

[Coomer]

Right now I'm working on trying to get my A/C to work in my car, and I've got a couple questions.

1. There's the large silver line that goes into the firewall and hooks up to the A/C compressor. Then there's the silver line that goes into the firewall and hooks up to the A/C condensor(I think that's the name of it...it's the radiator-looking thing) and finally hooks up to the A/C compressor. My question is, which line goes to which part of the compressor?

Here's a picture to illustrate this:

The circled things are the places where lines can attach.

2. On my spare 4A-GE, the lines are still attached to the compressor, but they're cut. However, they've got these big metal things, pictured below. What do these things do? I know that my '95 ST doesn't have these. And do I need them? I planned on using my ST lines on my car.

Pictures:

There's the 4A-GE compressor.


For comparison purposes, here's the 7A-FE compressor.

Attached image(s)

 

[Kwanza26]

There are basically two lines... one suction and one discharge. The discharge is the one that goes into the condensor and the suction goes into the firewall (evaporator). To figure out which line goes where, umm, the suction line usually has a small nipple (low pressure fitting) on it. This is usually where the A/C is recharged. The discharge line has a larger nipple on it. I can't say which port on the compressor is which, but typically speaking, they only fit one way and Toyota tends to recycle compressor designs, so the suction and discharge ports should be in the same place between the 4AGE and 7AFE.

For your second question... not sure exactly what those little chamber things do, but I would guess it may be an older R12 system and runs different line pressure or something. Those things may be there to reduce line pressure... but that's only a guess... ;]

[Coomer]

Thanks for the info. I've got bad news though.

The ST stock lines don't bolt onto the 4A-GE compressor. And the ST compressor doesn't bolt onto the 4A-GE. And I don't know if the 4A-GE compressor uses R12 or R34a. And neither does anyone else. And both of my 4A-GE compressors are damaged. And yeah, it's a headache.

[97GTinKC]

Thanks for the info. I've got bad news though.

The ST stock lines don't bolt onto the 4A-GE compressor. And the ST compressor doesn't bolt onto the 4A-GE. And I don't know if the 4A-GE compressor uses R12 or R34a. And neither does anyone else. And both of my 4A-GE compressors are damaged. And yeah, it's a headache.
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You need to go to a good auto parts store, the better ones like NAPA or carquest usually have A/C hose and fittings and a hydraulic crimper to connect them, they should be able to cut the crimps on your car's lines and put new hose on, then crimp that to your compressor fittings, I've done this for people doing swaps on various cars when I worked at a parts store. either take REAL GOOD measurements or crimp 1 end and trial fit it before getting the other end crimped. They also have special A/C line splices where you could cut the lines and splice your hoses to the new compressor's hoses (or hoses from a junkyard compressor if your new one doesnt have them) , even come with diff size ends in case you need to adapt hose sizes, but they look like crap and tend to leak after a couple of years. It CAN be done, though, and it will need to be vacuum pumped and some A/C oil added along with the freon.
I believe those cans are filters or mufflers, could be 1 of each, not truely necessary, but I'd leave them, (they also sell universal ones to go inline on the hoses. Might need to find an old-school mechanic that does a lot of A/C work to get it hooked up and working. most mechanics now just want to get it in and out as fast as possible. Ask the parts store, they should know who buys a lot of A/C parts.

And just convert it to r134 when you get it charged if you're not sure about the compressor. Most everything from 92 on was r134 ,,,

This post has been edited by 97GTinKC: Mar 13, 2005 - 11:16 PM