I have an early ‘81 (VIN 767) with the hose coming out of the bottom of the accumulator. I plan on upgrading to the 82-83 style and adding a high pressure switch, as well as converting to R134. I’ve been talking with DMC MW about getting everything to do this.
I tried oxyfuel with my small welding tip, and managed to start a very small fire in the plastic or whatever it is where the evaporator pokes through the firewall. It was quickly put out with wet rags, once I managed to stuff them in there. I think I’ll skip anything more than a heat gun going forwards, especially after I spotted the fuel lines and saw just how close they are.
I tried channel lock pliers and vice grips to twist the wide part of the hose near the connector, but it’s still solidly in place.
I also tried to disconnect the hose at the bottom of the accumulator, without much success. I’m covering everything with Kroil (and picking up some PB Blaster; the Kroil isn’t a spray), and I’ll try again next weekend after it has had time to sit. If that still doesn’t work, I’ll cover everything with PB Blaster and try again the next day.
Since I plan on replacing the entire AC system, including the evaporator and condenser, I might just resort to cutting everything out rather than spending the time to carefully disconnect the old hardware. I’ll give it a few more tries before giving up. Its a bit of an unusually luxury to be able to just destroy these bits and tear them out without worry. The evaporator box is expendable as well, due to the high likelihood of a leak there.
I did get the bottom hose off the compressor, so at least something is going well.
Thanks again everyone!
— Joe