Dash Air Conditioning not working 2006 Journey 36SE

[aquamagic]

Please bear with me, I'm a new user. I will list all the info I can.. I have a 2006 Winnebago Journey 36SE w/a 300 Cumins, My cab air is not circulating freon. So this is where I'm at with it. By the way, it appears to be a SCS system. I took out the expansion valve and the receiver /dryer and plan on replacing them. also I blew out the lines. I got a fair amount of oil out of the system. I know the compressor is suppose to take like 3oz. I think I read. Should I add any back in?

I'm having a hard time locating the parts. ( the valve and drier )The numbers are on the parts but have not been able to locate them online. They obviously have changed.. I also went to NAPA yesterday with no luck. Can anyone drop me a thread or give me an idea where I can look. I may call that comfort air com place that is online. That's my next thought I guess. I,m a do it yourselfer person trying to learn the system. Im hoping I can get these parts back in and try and charge it back up. I'm about $200 in with the purchase of gauges and freon trying to get this thing right so this is the path I took. Any suggestions as I go back together will be appreciated. Thanks so much !

[Our ride]

Is the compressor getting power,is it seized up,is the clutch ok.You also need to check for system leaks.This is done by vacuuming the system down.And yes you do need to add oil back into the system.

[aquamagic]

I'm sorry I did miss a little in the beginning of the problem. The compressor is engaging ok. At one time it was blowing cold air. I had to add freon on every trip it seemed like. every few months. I replaced the cores on the service ports. It seemed to of lost oil when I done this so I added a little in. I may not have done it properly. after I done that it seemed as though the freon would not circulate. so that's what brought to the point of replacing those 2 things and starting over. At this point had I known all this I would have tried a repair shop. I'm getting some money in it at this point. I'm pretty certain those ports were leaking. I did vacuum it down and it seemed to hold around 29 psi. I will try and find these parts and get them installed. I've been reading quite a bit so hopefully I can get this thing right. appreciate your reply . The bottom port on this valve has a little bit of dirt on it. the drier seemed pretty dirty and also has a rattle to it so hopefully I'm on the right track

[Ray,IN]

SCS Frigette parts on Amazon.
Victory/SCS Frigette parts at comfortair
SCS parts at millsupply.com


Although this is a EvansTempcon dash air service manual, it contains a lot of generic useful information for motorhomes.
IMO your stumbling block is now how much oil remains in the system and how much is needed to reach the recommended level.
This might be useful too: https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...nditioning.pdf
And these search results: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=www.victor...=v387-1&ia=web

[Ray,IN]

Here is another 12V HVAC service manual that contains a lot of useful information:https://www.btrac.com/documents/svc-...i-feb-2011.pdf

[tim myers]

there is a very long but also very informative post on iRV2 Titled "Dash AC, a work in progress, It will be found in the Owners Corner Forum/Entegra Owners Forum



If I were smarter and could figure it out I would post a link

[FIRE UP]

auquamagic,

Well Sir, you and I are in the same boat so-to-speak. We own an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the CAT C-7 330HP. Yours and our coaches are very similar in many ways. Annnnnd, I too had a dash air conditioning system problem for actually a couple of years. Long, long story short, It was working perfectly for the first several years of ownership. Then it stopped putting out cold air. As much as I've been wrencher for ten bazillion years, I've never delved into the field of A/C.

So, I paid a company a couple hundred bucks to fix it. It worked for a while. Then it quit again. I took it back, they fixed it, again for a couple hundred bucks and it worked for a very short while, as in ONE DAY. Then I took it back one more time. This time it was about $380 or so. It worked FOR ONE DAY.

After all that, I figured, if they can't seem to fix it, and they vacuum it and feed it freon, and it only works for one day, then I'll learn how to vacuum it and feed it freon myself. Yes, yes I know, letting that much freon into the atmosphere is definitely not a good thing. But, not being an A/C type guy, I did my best to locate whatever kind of leak I might have. When I'd feed it the required amount, that was a good working system.

What finally got to me was the fact that, when I started doing the vacuuming and freon install myself, the cost of a can, around 12 oz., was right at $4.00 a can from Walmart. Over the next two years, that same can is now $10.00 a can!!!!!!!!!!!! And, the sticker for A/C capacity for our system is on the front firewall of the coach and it states 40 oz. Well, that adds up real quick at $10 a can. Especially when it all leaks out by the next day.

Well, I'd carry the vacuum pump, gauges and lines and a half dozen cans on every trip. I'd do it in the middle of nowhere just to keep us in a decent environment while traveling. One day, I ripped the bed apart in back of the coach in order to do a check of all the components in prep for an upcoming trip and noticed something. The two A/C lines coming from the A/C pump had/have that plastic corrugated protection tubing around them. And one of them was quite OILY about a foot away from the pump.

I thought hmmmmm, that's not right. The other line sitting right next to it with the protection plastic was dry as a bone. Sooo, I peeled back the plastic tubing and there was an oily mess around what appears to be some form of a splice not very far from the fitting where it attaches to the pump. I thought, hmmm, I'm wondering if that's where ALL of my freon's been seeping out and no one could get to it to check it out???

So, I got lucky. That line is the one from the pump to the condenser at the side of the coach. I was sure hoping it wasn't the one that ran from the A/C pump ALL THE WAY to the front of the coach! I popped it out of there and headed down to my local place that makes up A/C hose kits. I walked out of there with a brand new 9' hose with new fittings for a mere $135.00. I installed that hose, vacuumed down the system all the way to 29.5 inches of mercury and it held for a couple hours which, it would never do for me before. At this point, I was on the way to being ecstatic. I got out 4 more cans of R-134 and slowly installed them. The A/C at the vents went from 90 degrees down to 44 degrees!!!!!!

I was so happy I'd have done hand springs if I wasn't an elephant! The next day, I started the coach and, on all my previous vacuumings and insertion of freon, that charge would have been GONE but, this time, the A/C brought those vents right down to around 40 degrees! Yahoooooooooo. I repeated this process for the next couple of weeks and each day, my A/C was as cold as possible.

Now, the moral of the story. A/C issues can be anywhere. Two 36' lines can leak ANYWHERE. When you don't see any evidence of that kind of a leak that I had on or around any fittings or any part of the A/C system that is visible, it's gotta be leaving the system somewhere.

A/C people go to school for that stuff for quite a while. You just don't learn it all in a couple days. For guys like you and me to hunt and peck around without at least some form of training, we're lucky if we get things right. A/C is a complicated system with lots of change-able variables, including the ambient temp you're working with that day.

Like ours, your coach *should* have a sticker on the firewall, someplace above the generator that should state just how much R-134 should be in your system. As far as oil, I can't begin to advise on that. I put about 3 or so oz in if I recall. I also installed a new A/C pump due to that's what the shop advised that I needed next. Needless to say, I wasted that $250 for the new pump when I didn't really need it. Good luck on your system. Keep us all informed of your progress will you.
Scott

[aquamagic]

thanks for the time telling us the story. Working on these things can get a little painful at times for sure. I'm up for the challenge. I've got like 15 hrs or better in it now. I may as well keep after it. lol I still gotta run down these parts yet. I'm gonna try a freightliner place in Mansfield, Oh and see if they can run some numbers today If not I may call that comfort air place that's online. I will post on the results at a later date

[aquamagic]

I got the parts all installed. I believe I made mention earlier , I replaced the dryer, the short line between the drier and condenser and the expansion valve. I ordered a new vacuum pump last weekend and received it through the week. I pulled a vacuum and it seems to be holding around 25. Now I need to determine how much PAG oil to put back in the system which is unknown. I should have measured it when it went in the oil drain pan and I did not. One of you fellas did mention that . I'm still trying to figure out which number oil to put in as well. I'm still searching. I'm pretty certain the system takes 3 ounces. Most of the oil came out . I feel comfortable with putting 2 1/2 back in. I have the RV her in the shop still so I will probably wait till next weekend to go to the next step. I'm in Ohio . I believe it's gonna warm up a bit by then.There is a sticker up front that states 40 ounces of 134a on the freon. It appears there is 3 different viscosities of the oil maybe more. My plans are to add dye and possibly one of the cans of freon with stop leak. Is it necessary, I'm not sure. It just makes sense.. Any opinion or suggestion is appreciated . I'm still learning. I will chime back in on my results. Thanks again , Bobby

[Ray,IN]

Originally Posted by aquamagic

I got the parts all installed. I believe I made mention earlier , I replaced the dryer, the short line between the drier and condenser and the expansion valve. I ordered a new vacuum pump last weekend and received it through the week. I pulled a vacuum and it seems to be holding around 25. Now I need to determine how much PAG oil to put back in the system which is unknown. I should have measured it when it went in the oil drain pan and I did not. One of you fellas did mention that . I'm still trying to figure out which number oil to put in as well. I'm still searching. I'm pretty certain the system takes 3 ounces. Most of the oil came out . I feel comfortable with putting 2 1/2 back in. I have the RV her in the shop still so I will probably wait till next weekend to go to the next step. I'm in Ohio . I believe it's gonna warm up a bit by then.There is a sticker up front that states 40 ounces of 134a on the freon. It appears there is 3 different viscosities of the oil maybe more. My plans are to add dye and possibly one of the cans of freon with stop leak. Is it necessary, I'm not sure. It just makes sense.. Any opinion or suggestion is appreciated . I'm still learning. I will chime back in on my results. Thanks again , Bobby

The amount and type of oil is at the bottom of this WIT service tip: https://device.report/m/b8b3d8e850d2...abf62cdfd6.pdf