84 Air Conditioning

[Thomas F.]

I think my 84 Corvette uses the old R12 Freon. Can I still purchase this stuff or do I need to convert to the newer Freon?

[Joe L.]

Re: 84 Air Conditioning

I think my 84 Corvette uses the old R12 Freon. Can I still purchase this stuff or do I need to convert to the newer Freon?

Thomas------


Yes, 1984 uses R-12. You can still find supplies of this refrigerant but they are expensive.

[Thomas F.]

Re: 84 Air Conditioning

Thanks Joe.

[Larry M.]

Re: 84 Air Conditioning

Tom:

Ebay is your friend. Go there and search for R12 refrigerant or R12 freon. To buy you need an EPA Certificate (easy to get, but requires a bit of study) or signing a waiver at purchase that the refrigerant is to be used by a certified technician.

If you have a friend who has the EPA Certification (car or home AC) they can purchase locally at places like NAPA etc.

Larry

[Edward J.]

Re: 84 Air Conditioning

Tom another source is craigs list, I seen it for sale there, and you don't need the a cert. its expensive, and make sure the you have no leaks. r12 will generally leave a oil stain around the leak area's , my advice is if the system is empty look carefully at all fittings, hoses, front of compressor,and take of the blower resistor and peek in with a good flash light and see if there are any signs of oil stains at the lowest point.

[Thomas F.]

Re: 84 Air Conditioning

What would it involve to switch to the newer Freon? Would I have to switch to any newer components?

[Edward J.]

Re: 84 Air Conditioning

Tom, I still have some of the fittings and labels to convert to 134, what else needs to be done is replace all the O-rings with the green ones, get as much of the R12 oil in the system as you can( the system will still work just fine with a small quality of R12 oil), generally it is flushed out with special detergent and is installed in a pressurized can and this will push out the systems oil from each component. and then once this is done install a low pressure switch that operates on r-134 a later corvette will likely work as long as the electrical connector is the same. the R-134 work on different pressure (lower). once ready and put back together add the correct amount of Pag oil to the system, and charge the system, when using R-134 charge the system 1/4 to 1/2 lb. of the less than what the sticker says for charge. Let me know if you go that route and I can send you the fittings and Label for conversion.

[John D.]

Re: 84 Air Conditioning

Tom, When I had my May 83 car I used the R12. AC was ice cold all the time.
At Corvette Carlisle a guy named Robert Jorjorian was selling it (on my son's table). He had a lot of it available.
Once when my 84 was judged at a chapter show a judge made fun of me and asked why was I still using the R12. I said because it's original and it's freezing cold.

[Thomas F.]

Re: 84 Air Conditioning

I just want to think everyone who responded to my post. Any responses to any of my posts are always appreciated even if I fail to acknowledge them. I have not made any decision on my A/C or made any effort to get it working. There are so many things to take up my time maybe I will get to it someday. Thanks again.