rocky raccoon

I had my 1983 Mercedes-Benz diesel converted. In order for it to work properly, the conversion must be complete. It requires a change of all components; compressor, dryer, all hoses and o-rings. The reason is that R134 has a smaller molecular structure than R12 and if all components are not changed, it will leak out in short order. I obtained my kit from an ebay source. They are still available specific to the vehicle and I'm sure you can get one from that source for your Ford.

Something to be aware of; R134 does not perform as well as R12 and if you live in a very hot climate you may not be fully pleased. This can be fixed by also replacing your condensor with a good cross-flow one.

Bear in mind that air conditioning is a closed system. If it is working and has no leaks, a fill is basically for life. You should never have to "top up" your gas. When I traded on an F150, my 20 year old Dodge Ram still had the factory R12 fill and it worked fine.

Steve83

At a parts store, of course. Or on Amazon or eBay or... Same as anything else.

But that's not the right way to convert it, and if you do that, you'll become one of those people who thinks R134a doesn't work as well as R12. It's actually the KITS that don't work.

To properly convert, the whole system has to be recovered, disassembled, rinsed out (to remove the old oil which isn't compatible with R134a), a new orifice tube installed (sized to work with R134a), O-rings replaced, service ports converted, and then the system has to be charged with the correct amounts of oil, dye, & refrigerant. It takes a pro to do it that way. The photos & captions in this album explain how:


(phone app link)

If you want to DIY, lift out the whole R12 refrigerant system intact...


(phone app link)

...and set in a complete working R134a refrigerant system from a '94-96 (& '97 <8500GVWR) truck.


(phone app link)

RLXXI

Maybe on a Mercedes but not on American vehicles. I convert an 87 Mercury Grand Marquis I had and yeah they were saying replace everything back then so I put it to the test as I knew I wouldn't be keeping the car for much longer, I replaced nothing except quick connect O-rings and added the new charge ports along with the required amount of PAG oil to the system, vacuum it for 30 mins then charged it up.

That a/c not only blew colder than the original r12, it was still blowing ice cold 3 years later when I sold the car.
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idrive

iTrader: (3)

R134A is not as efficient as R12. In hotter temps it becomes even less efficient.

Find the leak, repair it and evacuate the system and then recharge with R12. Easiest, and most cost effective. If your system needs parts a junk yard is the best place to look.

If you do want or need to convert then a novice is not going to fare well. Have it done by someone that knows what they're doing.

RLXXI

They stopped making R12 years ago and theoretically what you say should be true, in my experience it has been exactly the opposite and I've converted hundreds of vehicles when I was at the dealer. All of them worked better on 134A than 12 as well as using approx half the amount of refrigerant .
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Steve83

New vehicles (which were designed & built to use R134a) are consistently colder & need fewer A/C repairs than older R12 vehicles.

Even a novice can lift out a sealed refrigerant system, and set another one back in.

RL1990

It is amazing how little refrigerant is in modern A/C systems and how compact the components are. The label on my R-134a truck says it takes 1.9 lbs of refrigerant which is not much considering the size of the cabin and all the glass. The old R-12 systems from the late 80's to 90's needed about 3 lbs and didn't have cabins as large as the modern Super Crews.

idrive

iTrader: (3)

The entire system(s) are considerably more efficient now than they were 20 years a go starting with the compressors. Most assuredly like comparing apples to oranges.

When the change was made to R134 back when it became mandated, ask the folks in the hot climates what happened when it reached 110-115* outside. No more AC. There were indeed growing pains in the beginning.

You'll also never convince me that a novice knows about head pressure, back pressure, high side, low side. Knows what the pressures should even be and most certainly doesn't have the tools to do it, gauges, evac. pump etc.

RL1990

My dad has a 96 Mazda B3000 (Ranger clone) and it had R134a when it first started being phased in and it had no problem getting ice cold. And we live in the gulf south. To it's credit it went about 15 years on the factory charge before a leak developed. And the FS10 compressor lasted a few years after the leak fix before giving up. Considering it's used almost year round that's pretty good.

77Ranger460

I own a 1994 vehicle I bought new with it's original R134a system. It has never been touched. It is still ice cold.

I put a remanufactured compressor on a 1987 R12 vehicle. I just swapped out the drier, put it on a vacuum and put on adapter ports. I did nothing else and put in R134a. I only planned to keep the car a year or two...That was 9 years ago. It's still got cold AC.