Okay great thanks guys. Sounds like a pain but hey wish I woulda known all this before. And I'm taking it to a body shop with a recovery/refrigerant/oiling machine
sorry, accumulator is what 01-02 trucks use. the 03 and up use a drier.
yes, you may have to do that a few times to get everything out. do not open the accumulator till you are ready to throw it on and have the system vac down and filled quickly. after an hour or so of being open to the atmosphere or in a system that has been open and cleaned like you are doing, the desiccant no longer becomes effective.
i would leave the old accu. on the truck while you clean everything out and take it down to get the truck done, then have the tech either swap it on or plan with the tech that soon as you bring it down, it puts the truck on a vac to boil out the moisture. once its on a vac and running, you are safe.
this sounds like a pain and a ton of steps but it will net you the best performing system possible. there are guys who have gotten away without changing the accu or receiver/drier, never done a vac of the system, never cleaned their shit out after a compressor let loose and so on but the life expectancy of those systems are not very long. i have touched the system in my truck twice and my dad bought this truck new in 01.5. once for the orifice tube dieing per a GM TSB years ago and causing shitty a/c, second was when i built the motor. besides the accu and orifice tube being replaced, i have never touched another hard part nor needed to. going on 5 years now since the system was recharged with the new engine and still will freeze you out of the truck or start freezing the evap up on humid days and low blower speed.
So don't put the new accumulator on until I'm at the shops and ready for it to be vacuumed and charged?
Edit: sorry for all the ignorance and questions. So my plan is to spray brake cleaner through the lines, evaporator, and condenser. Then blow them out with air. Then put it all back together. We have a vacuum pump here at the house. So vacuum it for a few hours. Can I just pour oil into the compressor? If so I can just put the r134 in here as we have a canister of it. But if not take it to a shop, install the accumulator in the parking lot. And have them vacuum it for a bit then put 134 and a few ounces of oil in it. Correct?
Correct, do not install the accumulator until you are ready to close the sytem. And do not use brake cleen. That will most certainly destroy the barrier wall inside of your refrigerant hoses. You can buy ac flush at most any large parts store. You can use either nitrogen or r-11 if you have access to it to prevent adding moistute to the system when flushing. Or fill the lines with flush, and blow them out with clean compressed air(it needs to be dry air, so make sure you use a compressor with a cooler and water seperator on it). If you don't have access to these kinds of tools, it is best to leave this job to somebody who does. A/C work isn't hard, but you need to be very carefull about introducing moisture. And if there is any question of moisture in the system, you need a pump that can pull down to the double digits at leadt on a micron gauge, and hold the vacuum for at leadt 45 minutes to an hour to boil the mousture out of the system.
The 6511338 is the one thats been on my truck now for several years. Or you can get the 9611824 kit with most everything you need for a few dollars more. The other style is a sanden copy. I had troubles with shaft seals holding up on the sandens, and it is a much louder design. They did cool slightly better at idle, but not as cold running down the road. The sanden style also requires a pag 150 for most applications while the oem style works just fine on most any oil.