Engine bay of a vehicle with hood open, radiator removed, and AC…

R134a Swap
IF THE IMAGE IS TOO SMALL, click it.

The A/C system had already been converted to R134a before I bought it, but it was empty. When I charged it, it leaked out in a few weeks. So I collected some used factory R134a parts (hood latch bracket, grill air deflectors, parallel-flow condenser, hard Aluminum liquid line, blower/evaporator box) and bought the best new parts available (Ford/MC YCC193/5U2Z19V703A compressor, YF37187/F5TZ19D850D manifold hose assembly (UAC copy HA10291C), YG346/F5UZ19D990AB red orifice tube, CarQuest T33091 accumulator/drier) and some refrigerant (2.5 cans/38oz of InterDynamics HFC134a, a few ounces of PAG46, and some UV dye) to upgrade it to the '94-97 system.



In the first pic (top left), the fresh-air tubes have been removed from the throttle body & air filter box, the belt & compressor are off the engine, and the condenser has been lifted out from in front of the radiator (which is still connected by its hoses & lines, simply tilted back) without losing ANY fluids. The second (top center) shows the entire refrigerant system (including blower/evaporator housing) has been removed from the truck; the third (bottom left) shows the refrigerant system intact (with whatever pressure it had still in it). The far right shows all the used & new R134a parts installed, including new evaporator cover insulation (foil-faced bubble-wrap).

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Immediately after installing & charging the system, I made a ~1400-mile round trip from Memphis to Gainesville for a week, and it worked perfectly, even on the lowest fan speed (where it was still uncomfortably cold sometimes).



Throttle linkage cover (not shown) E9TA9E766AA
Low-pressure (clutch cycling) switch MC YH552/Ford F3AZ19E561A
Liquid line Ford F6TZ19837AA cheap copy

Owner caption March 2022 · Photo 108 of 121