Hello all! Been a long time since I have been back here, but I have returned. My 2005 v6 Mustangs has stopped receiving toys and has turned into the era of receiving repairs. This time I am attempting to get my A/C to work again.

I found a TSB pointing to the front shaft seal leaking on FS-10 A/C compressors on Fords. http://imgur.com/MqLVCNm. Turns out it is a very common and even had a video showing how easy it is to replace. So I ordered a kit to fix the front seal as well as some new gaskets for the A/C lines as I was in there anyway. I decided I would try to change them on a day that I work as I could use our A/C machine to evaporate any air that got into the system and recharge it with fresh R-134 without having to drive back up to the shop.

Turns out this wasn't such a good idea. I got the compressor out easy enough but our shop didn't have anything to get the pulley off except for a 2.5 plastic sledge for tire rotations (I work at an oil change place rather than a full service shop.) I would have rented a steering wheel puller to get the thing off if I had thought of it in advance.

The other issue that made it not so much of a good idea is that we were super busy and basically had to button the system back up as I knew this was becoming an uphill battle and I needed to have my car running before we closed so I could get home last night.

Background aside, this brings me to my questions.
1.) How do I go replacing the actual PAG oil? The video I saw before turned out to be for a different A/C compressor where it had four bolts at the bottom and he literally just emptied it out and poured more in. The FS-10 has no such bolts to do so. Do I just shake it around to get as much out as I can and pour some into the ports and shake that around to make sure it is filled and lubricated? I found that idea from here: http://www.justanswer.com/ford/3n5lr...-recomend.html

2.) How much PAG oil do I put into the compressor itself? There should still be some in the system and I have only messed with the compressor as I didn't have time to get back to do the gaskets yet.

3.) This is the part I feel shameful to admit. In my haste to get my car back up and running to go home, I decided it was going to be faster to wrap the back end of the compressor in plastic and use 8-10 rubber bands to hold it in place and to do the same with the A/C line that plugs directly into it. My logic here was that it keeps the ports clean and blocks any extra air or debris from getting into the system on my ten minute drive home. But could this have done any damage to the system? Would this harm the other parts of the system that I haven't touched?

I appreciate any advice possible.

 

1 go to auto zone, or other parts store and see if they have the correct loan a tool to remove your clutch
2 if you didnt drain out any oil then u dont need to change any, at most i always add 1 oz to make up for any loss on disassembly
3 i wouldnt worry about it, if you covered the ports you are ok, because it was open to atmosphere for an extended amount of time, make sure to pull a vacuum on it for at least a half an hour to boil out any moisture that may have entered the system

 

Thank you for the info. I'm getting the same sort of answers from several sources, but mixed results on how much to put in. I'm debating changing all my gaskets, running it under a vacuum for like half an hour, then taking the compressor down and adding fluid. This way, the vacuum evacuates any left over oil.

 

the vacuum process doesnt pull out oil, the rule of thumb is 1 oz per component replaced (lines etc. the compressor is more) if you didnt drain out any oil, chances that the leak resulted in a large loss of oil is slim, i would only add 1-2 oz. you can damage the system by adding too much oil

 

There are a lot of repairs I will do myself, but A/C repair isn't one of them.