a/c high side port

[rcweston]

My a/c has stopped working in the last two days. I removed the cap on the high side port today and herd refrigerant leaking out. It doesn't have a schrader valve like the low side does, instead it has a ball type valve. I carefully tried to push and release the ball a couple of times to try and dislodge whatever might be stuck in it. The pressure must be very low becuas it pushed easily. But it didn't work, it still has a small hiss. I suspect it will be empty of refrigerant by morning.
Can these ball type valves be replaced?
It has the appearance that the valve is screwed on to a fitting, and the fitting is welded to the pipe. The valve connection looks like one nut directly above another as if you could use the bottom nut to hold things from twisting while pressure was applied to the top nut to remove it. But when I looked at it closer with a mirror it almost seemed as if it is all one piece. The two nuts are just one nut with a line in the middle of it appearing as if it was two nuts.
Any help on stopping the leak or replacing the valve would be greatly appreciated.
Rex

[rcweston]

problem solved! The two nuts I was referring to were at the start of the tee in the pipe and held the valve fitting. Indeed they are not 2 nuts but just a fitting that is welded to the tee. It is used to hold pressure on the tee so it doesn't twist while removing the valve.
What I didn't notice was that half way up the valve there is another place for a wrench. It is 8 sided and almost looks round, but it isn't. So nothing I had in the tool box would fit except a crescent wrench (it has two flat sides).
Finding the part was much harder. I found a reference in another forum that had a leaking valve also and it gave reference to a part # ;

("O'reilly sells Murray part number 59946. You can also contact ackits.com and ask them what part number you need. They are very nice people." )

O'reilly couldn't find the part in there system and said they didn't deal with those parts until I gave them the part number. They looked it up and it was in stock on there shelf. Also found the 8 sided wrench in there Murray book, but it wasn't in stock.

I hope this might help the next person with this problem.
rex