R - 134 Conversion

R-134a will work in your old system if you do this:
1)- change to a rotary AC compressor. Theese have no oil sump, so 'cleaning' the old oil from your system is much simplifed. Ther stock York has a sump, which must be thotroughly cleaned before reinstalling it.
2)- use 'barrier-type AC hoses, with o-ring seral ends. Any shop can make these up to size. R-134a is a physically smaller molecule and leaks more readily than R-12.
3)- change the under-dash expansion valve to one calibrated for R-134a, probably without the filter-screen that was commonly used with R-12.
4)- change the dryer in back to a new one. The old unit is hopelessly contaminated with R-12 oils and uses the wrong dessicant for R-134a anyway.
Your favorite Pantera parts vendor has already made up a 'kit' of these parts that takes care of all this for you, and it may be cheaper than running all over town chasing down the various bits to fabricate such a conversion. Installation of the new hoses running through the center console and connecting them under the dash without damaging the evaporator is not a walk-in-the-park, either.....

Thanks for the quick response, Jack. I am mechanically challenged, so would have to find somebody trustworthy to do all this for me. It may just be easier to try to find the apparent leak in the system and recharge it with R12 (again). As a matter of curiosity, though, how much is the repair kit to effect the conversion?

JB

Most of the owners I know that went to R134 found that it did not work very well compared to R12 in the marginally configured Pantera evaporator and condenser.

Mike

Mr Bishop, what area of the country do you live in? I can probably recommend a vendor to you that is reasonably close by.

I was told, by one of the vendors that if you wish to convert from R12 to R134, that(along with other parts Jack mentioned), you must take out and replace the entire A/C register located under the dash. So I stuck with the R12 equipment. There are still shops around here that can handle the stuff. Regards, Marlin.

I think Allen Morris has a very nice AC upgrade, but I can not get to anything on his website other than the home page. Try http://www.smartstoreinc.com/pantera/ and see if you can find some pages on the AC.