2000 3.8 A/C Evap Replacement

Anybody here ever done this? I've done the heater core a while back. Not too bad. And the heater core in my '97 F-150. A nightmare. (The dash has to be removed)
I have the parts already from Rockauto, along with the front hose, O-ring kit, and accumulator. I've seen some evidence of oil leakage on these components.
I've been putting it off too long, and I'm tired of putting freon in it.
Any tips here? I have a buddy who owns a car shop (Porsches only) and he will vacuum it down and re-charge it for me.

Ford sells the evaporator, only already mounted inside the plastic plenum. At least this is so for the 1999. Huge job, I would think. A creative person may can come up with a short-cut.

Before doing this task, I would isolate the evaporator from the rest of the system and make sure it will not hold a vacuum ... proving it has the leak ... or by testing with leak detector. A big job to later discover you have replaced wrong part.

I agree with 12oz. The problem is how to easily isolate the evap. I've always thought it would be awesome if someone could invent various adapters so that you could troubleshoot a/c systems. It would be nice to have various fittings that matched factory fittings so that you could open the system up, install a fitting on one end, pull a vacuum and see if the leak is on side one or side two of the system. Perhaps something like that exists, but I've never seen it.

If something like that does appear in the next few years, I'll be suing for copyright violations. :)

Mark

.... Perhaps something like that exists, but I've never seen it.

If something like that does appear in the next few years, I'll be suing for copyright violations. :)

Mark

I know what you are talking about ... these adapters/caps/plugs ... probably do already exist, but I have not seen them either. If you removed some tubing from a junker ... getting the tubes that include the "high" and "low" service ports ... you could make a dandy set of home-made adapters. A "jumper" would also be nice .... a hose with a male hook-up on one end, female on the other .... of the correct sizes so that any component could be just removed from the system so the balance of the system could be tested.

Sometimes, since we are talking vacuum here, you can sometimes get away with just using heavy-walled hoses and hose clamps.

There seems to be a lot of interest in dye based testing methods ... I'm not a fan. I have a halogen type tester ... it usually gets me pretty close to the offender.