Hello All,

I am in the process of changing the compressor, drier, and orifice tube on my Escape. I have the compressor installed and am ready to do the orifice tube, but for the life of me i can't find it.

I have opened up both lines going through the firewall to the evaporator and neither one had an old orifice tube in it. Does the Hybrid version of the escape not have an orifice tube??

If it does, does anyone know where it is located.

I have attached a few pictures of the current state of the installation. I am waiting to get this part done before i install the drier so i can take it directly to the shop that evacuated it and have them recharge the system.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

It should be in the high side line that goes from the receiver/dryer/accumulator and the evaporator. They do have a special removal tool for that but I'm unsure if something else will do.

I'm about to do the same on a old GM product right now.

 

--Update--

After a little more searching in the Interwebs and looking at some diagrams i found the orifice tube.

It is in the high pressure line going to the evaporator like everyone said. My Haynes manual made it look like it was at the connection right at the firewall but it is further upstream than that. There is a compression fitting upstream of the A/C tube fitting that you have to undo. Once you open that part you'll see the orifice tube.

The connection is right after the solenoid valve on the high pressure line.

Changed that, buttoned everything up and took it to the shop to have it recharged. Blows really cold now and the engine is turning off almost everytime i stop which it did not used to do. Guess it was not able to cool the battery enough to allow it to go into EV Mode.

 

Just curious as to what the shop actually did?

The reason I'm asking is that the car I'm working on held the vacuum after I pumped it down for days. This is the second car that uses R12 I'm working on. Unlike the other one, I put in one 12oz can, it held for day and then started to lose it. That can was $25, one of four I bought off Craig's List? So, it held vacuum but not pressure. I learn now that I can charge with R134A which is much cheaper just to test pressure(no compressor running) and then go back to R12. I'm still thinking about converting to R134A just to see how well it works as sometimes it works very poorly. I'm using a oil that works with both just for that reason.

 

I don't think they did anything special.

I took it to them a few days ago to evac the system so I could take everything apart. Once I had it back together I took it back and they pulled vacuum and then charged it with R134a.

I was talking with the mechanic the whole time. He said it held vacuum like it was supposed. It started blowing cold air as soon as he started charging it so all seemed good.

I know when i pulled the old compressor off it was leaking green oil so I am pretty sure that was the issue. There was maybe 30ml of oil in the system as it had all leaked out

I guess we'll see how it holds after a few days. If it looses pressure i'll let you know.

 

I was just pointing out the fact that "they" say if it holds vacuum, it should be good. Not really. Should replace "should be " with "maybe it's".

 

I don't think you can attain a full charge of refrigerant without the compressor running to create a low pressure on the suction side. At normal OAT the refrigerant in the can doesn't create enough pressure.

And DO NOT HEAT the can...

Most r-134a charging kits include instructions.

 

Your not reading correctly. I find out now on a R12 system, it's common practice to use a small amount of R134A which is cheaper just for leaking testing, static or compressor not running.

You can charge in liquid form(can upside down) on the high side with the compressor off till it won't take no more then in gas form with the compressor running on the low side. I also used a large fan in front of the first vehicle and a small bucket of warm water to heat the cans.