Howdy! I'm brand new to the forum so a bit of background I suppose. I was born in 76 and at 14 years old I got my first car .. a 1976 Maverick (brown 4dr). It was so sweet .. loads of great memories growing up with that car. Last month I found a 1976 Mav (green / 4dr) with only 24k mile on it and everything is original .. EVERYTHING, even the tires. It's in great shape with exception to some holes in the headliner from where some mice must've gotten in while it was in the garage. I have the original bill of sale and the window sticker lol. It took a little work to get her purring again (mostly had to drain the bad gas out of the tank and replace spark plugs). Brakes are a little questionable but otherwise it seems to do well. Drove it about an hour to get it home after buying it and it did pretty well on the highway. However .. the A/C is not blowing anything cold. No surprise. I'm not mechanical at all, but know enough to assume a new can of refrigerant won't likely work on this old system. Any thoughts / helpful insight on the matter? I was thinking about going to AutoZome and asking one of the guys there, but found this forum which is pretty cool. Thanks in advance!
Welcome from northeast Illinois! Nice find on the more door! I would change/replace rubber hoses & belts before I do much driving, especially brake, radiator and heater. AC is nice to have but won't leave you on side of road if it fails. Good luck with your new acquisition!
For A/C, virtually all the seals & hoses have long ago failed(refrigerant can creep through the rubber). Back in day, was lucky for system to operate five years without needing recharge. After first recharge, time between charges became less & less. Once seals fail, moisture will creep inside system. Even a droplet will freeze and block expansion valve, resulting in no A/C. At very least system should be evacuated and tested for leaks(if there were no leaks it'd still be charged). If R-12 was still $1.50 a can I'd say go for it, more like 25-50x that these days. Of course many systems were recharged with R-134 but that's screwing up royally. The oil used in R-12 systems isn't compatible with R-134, will turn into a black goo. Requires a complete flush of system. There are other refrigerants that are oil friendly.
I will add this: Expect to spend at least $1000 to get the AC going again. I will also add: Don't ask anybody at AutoZone how to work on your car.
