The off the shelf kits work fine but like Vicegrip said you have to follow instructions very carefully. The biggest thing most people miss is the evacuation since it requires a special pump. Other than that fix your leaks and it's just as good as having a professional do it.

A friend of mine & I hooked a vacuum pump up to the R134 conversion system on my 911SC. It had been disconnected & exposed to the atmosphere so I knew there was air in the system. We ran the pump for about 30 minutes (no gauge) then put 2 cans of the autozone R134 in it and voila, it worked! I went back to Autozone and bought a handy gauge that has a dial that adjusts for outside temperature to show optimum pressure at indicated temperature. Turns out 2lbs was on the spot.

When I was stuck in DC traffic at 2pm and 90+ degrees outside, I wouldn't have called it cold, but it was cooler than outside. At any temp below 85 its nice and it works great when its below 65 deg outside:lol:

I've read enough threads on A/C in old 911s to not set my expectations too high. But I'm glad I spent the $30 and I learned a little about A/C too!

I added a can to my '96 olds a few weeks ago and all is cool again.

I worked on another board members' 911 a while back and the big problem with sitting still is the condenser gets no air flow and it gets heat soaked from the engine. Going down the road I could get it pretty cool but sitting still for a minute or two just killed it. Overall it's a cruddy design, adding an electric pusher fan to it with a temperature trigger would help a great deal but ideally the condenser needs to be relocated.

we know your cutty is always icy... :lol:

Attachment 13388

Werd. No worries tho, it is BUR with walk strips. No effin' ballast to deal with.

figure that one out.....

Hells yeah! Big pimp'n 24x7 son.

Isn't it worth finding out why the refrigerant isn't in the system anymore before pumping some more in?

No doubt; but if you can keep A/C working with a $20 recharge each summer (and it's not freon), then you might avoid a $400 repair job. If I have to recharge again this Summer, I'll take it in for a leak test/fix.

Car AC uses an open compressor. Gas in leaking out right now and with enough time all car AC systems will go empty even when all is good. It might have a tiny leak that is a bitch to fix and not worth it. It might have a dime sized hole in the condenser. Shoot some gas in and see how long it takes to leak back out. 134A is not an O3 depleting gas.