I have an 84 Trans Am, 305 with an automatic.
My A/C just doesn't seem to get "cold". It gets relatively cool, but not cold. I've made sure the coolent level is fine, the compressor works as advertised and there is no leak that a professional shop that serviced it can find (same place that serviced it). The condenser does get cold...but the air coming out of the vents is well...cool at best. It's not the frigid cold I'd expect and it takes forever to cool off the inside of the car. Any Ideas?

 

I guess this was answered. 134a doesn't cool as effectively as R12. Don't know if there is anything else I can do.

 

What does that mean?

I have a similiar problem. I've had it charged twice and it only seems cool at best. The inside of the car never really gets cold.

 

Amen to that.

I started to contribute it to the fact that I have the GTA front end on my car so I have no air flow what so ever other than what the Air Dam or Fan and pull through but now I'm not so sure....

 

When you converted it, did you replace the filter dryer, and pull a good 1 hr. vaccum before charging the system? If so, you can probably attribute the lack of cooling to both of the things you mentioned.. 134a in an R12 system won't work as well, and the lack of airflow over the condensing coil. I changed my system over to 134a in my Camaro, and it works great.. When it's 85 F outside, it blows 55 F air inside when it's on recirculate. Yesterday it got pretty close to 100 F and it was still blowing out ice cold air, so it may just be a lack of airflow that's not letting it cool as well in your car.. Out of curiosity, what pressures is it running?

 

I agree with skapunk. You need to change out the filter and the dryer. Some also say the accumulator. I have Mitchell and it says you have to change both the filter and the dryer each time you have it serviced. You also want to make sure your cycling switch is working well. If it is not getting up to pressure it will not run as well.

 

Sweet, I will definitely have the filter and dryer checked. Thanks!

 

our cars dont have a reciever/dryer it only has an accumulator.(or so ive been told.)

 

I looked around a bit, and you may be right... Even a search of online auto parts stores turned up accumulators, but no dryer filters. I guess I was just used to working on the a/c systems in newer cars(which usually have them). Thanks for bringing that to our attention!

 

Well, then it seems that I'm going to have to suffer through not having very cold A/C. lol I will try a complete purge of the system and maybe, if I can afford it, a new accumulator and compressor, but that gets sort of expensive.

 

Just a thought...but if there is too much oil....you will get insufficient cooling of the air as well...due to the fact that the oil is taking up all the expansion room for the 134a the whole a/c system works on expansion and condensing of the 134a ..if there is too much oil in the system you will not get sufficient expansion and condesing so the 134a will not be able to give off its heat..and you wont be able to cool the air inyour car....cool at best should never be the description of the air coming out of your vents...


oh and we have accumalators in our cars...

and i mean too much oil in the refrigerant...not in the crankcase...just to be clear..lol

and you probably dont need a new compressor unless there is obviously something wrong with it...get a friend with somemanifold gauges to check out your pressures for you

 

This is what i found in pricing. You can find them on ebay for much less i am sure. This is at AutoZone.
AC_PARTS
REMANUFACTURED 57941 $149.99

AC_PARTS A/C ACCUMULATOR

Unit Price: $29.99
Part No.: 33198