On my way home Wednesday SWMBO called and told me she was outside and the AC started banging so she shut it off.
I got home and checked it out - other than dirty contacts everything looked OK but the compressor still wouldn't start. OHMed out the motor and it was OK and wasn't grounded out. Now I'm left with a bad capacitor or a shot compressor.
My meter won't test capacitors so Thursday morning I buy a capacitor and a 'super boost' hoping my compressor is just tired. $50 and ten minutes later I know I need a new unit...
After many phone calls I find a place that has the unit in stock that I need and didn't ask which company I worked for. So I pick up the new condenser, evaporator and line set and head home late Thursday. Didn=92t take too long to rip out the old stuff and luckily the new evaporator was very close in size to the old one so not a lot of duct changes needed to be done. Damn! I forgot to get the brazing sticks so another night w/o AC.
The high cost of metal might be good when you go the scrapyard but not when you need to buy brazing sticks - $140 for a pack of 28 sticks! I brazed in my new lines and did a quick check to see if it would hold a vacuum and it held. Good. Ran the evacuation pump for an hour while I made all the electrical connections.
Moment of truth, open the valves and turn it on=85 No problems - got cold right away with 26deg air temp difference across the evaporator.
Yes I should have triple evacuated it with Argon and pressure tested it instead of just a vacuum test but that would have cost me another $300 for a tank of Argon with no gauges. I saved myself several thousand by doing it myself and I placed the new condenser in a more sensible location. Yes you can replace your own AC system. Two downsides are I had to settle for a 410 unit, and I have 26 brazing sticks that I=92ll probably never use.