Been sometime since I asked how much refrigerant/oil the system uses. Just today I started on this job. Turns out the parts house ordered the right receiver dryer part number, but the wrong part was in the packaging. That's just my luck. The replacement replacement part won't be in till tomorrow morning.

Turns out a special tool is needed to remove the high side schrader valve. My local NAPA had it on the shelf, and as a turn in my luck it was on sale this week. In the lucky/unlucky department I'm 1 for 1 right now.

I was planning on doing this job in one day, taking my time. That should had been easy enough. Now I'm waiting on parts, go figure.

Today I'll replace all the o-rings, high side schrader valve (new dryer comes with a new schrader), and new orifice tube.

Got my fingers crossed that the seals on the compressor are good. I could find NO signs of a leak using the dye and a black light. Actually, I was out in the pitch dark and found no obvious dye/leak. That bothers me. Best I could come up with is a very, very little bit of dye on the high side schrader valve. I'm hoping that is the leak. Hey, a leak is a leak, right? I imagine that even a small leak would allow all the refrigerant to escape within a 24 hour period, especially the high side.

Question: on one web site I was reading (didn't keep the url), author claimed to be a service shop that performed A/C repairs, it stated that the evaporator and condensor should never be flushed. Anybody have any experience with flushing these? I'm geting ready to flush the lines right after I post this, but didn't want to flush these two items if it is a bad idea. The reason given why not to flush is that some of the flush fluid will be trapped in the lower passages; you can't get all of the flush fluid out of the system. Thoughts?