I bought the OEM retrofit kit from FCP Groton. Evaporator flushed, upon flushing condenser told by indie that high pressure hose leaking. Recrimped the high pressure line at the compressor and then told me it was NOT the hose but the consenser that was bad. Bought good quality new condenser off seller on eBay for $109 delivered to Hawaii - not too bad. Installed and will not hold vacuum.

Discovered low pressure tube from accumulator / drier is leaking down by power steering pump from rubbing against hot air intake foil covered pipe. It is no longer round but has flattened there and I am told this is the leak. Makes me wonder if my condenser was in fact leaking or if this is the actual leak.

Does anyone by chance have or have access to this tube / hose / tube? It is not too difficult to remove as the connections are accessable from the engine compartment.

It is a tube at the accumulator drier, turns into a hose as it goes under the engine across the splash pan and then again becomes a metal tube when it connect to the top drivers side of the Diesel Kiki compressor?

Or might is be possible to cut the pipe off before the bad section and have a hose made to connect there and at the compresser?

This job has taxed my patience greatly and become costly. Please help if possible.

Thanks,

Maui

You can have the hose redone. Take the entire hose assembly to a reputible hose maker and they'll cut off the used crimp barrels, put on some new ones with lock crimps and crimp a new hose in.

Make sure it's a good shop, nothing's worse than getting a hose made and the ends being out of position.

Have a good weekend,
Frank

I'll tell you what I did on mine. Have you ever seen that welding/soldering rod that they sell at swap meets, gun shows and the like? Usually some old codger behind the table with a propane torch and a whole bunch of crap that he has welded together with it. The popular demonstration is how they can fill holes in the side of an aluminum can with the stuff. I picked some up one time and had it laying around when my preheat hose chewed it's way through the low side aluminum pipe right there by the frame rail. I cleared stuff out of the way, cleaned the pipe, and soldered it back together right in the car. I practiced on a couple of pop cans first and it turned out great. It was a heck of a lot easier than changing out that hose, I've done a boat load of those on regular customer cars over the years too. Mind you this is not a repair that I would advocate doing on a customer car and charging for but it is a repair that I did on my own car years ago and has held up great. In fact the same 960 had an evaporator let go so I pulled it out, found the leak, soldered it up, pressure tested it, and it too has been fine for the past 1-2 years. I have no doubt you could probably find some of this stuff online if you do a search for it.

Just a thought
Mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks for sharing your solution. It sounds like it might me just the thing as the worn area of the pipe is accessable and I would not have to remove anything.
Seems I have nothing to loose if I can find this stuff somewhere on the island.

I need to call around the welding shops to see if anyone may have it.
Have you ever seen it at auto parts stores?

When I felt the area that is said to be leaking I could not detect any hold so it must be a small fracture like you mentioned. I thought about JB weld or even a high tech epoxy meant for metal. Any experience with them?

Maui

Here is a link to what I am talking about, this guy wants too much for it but at least you can see what I mean.

http://www.durafix.com/

Mark