I have a 3/8 aluminum tube on an air conditioner that has a hole in it. I attempted repair it by using a compression fitting line splice kit from Autozone as seen on top. Basically you cut the tube with a tubing cutter and slide the ends into the splice and tighten everything. Problem is this splice has failed on me twice.
I have two other options I can think of to repair this aluminum A/C line. One is to braze the tubes together. I am having trouble finding a 3/8 aluminum coupling sleeve to join the tubes together for brazing.
The other option is to use flared fittings. This is my preferred option since the lines are difficult to get to and brazing would be very hard to get right on aluminum.
What I want to do is to put a female flared nut on the ends of the aluminum tubes and then flare the ends. Then I want to join it to a male coupling. The problem is I can't find the female ends anywhere. I found the male coupling at summit racing. Also pictured above... Where do I find a female for this coupling?
The parts need to be all aluminum. I don't want to go with brass for the fear of galvanic corrosion. Any ideas? Should I try something else instead of flared fittings?
Also known as AN Fittings. They began their life in military use. A=Army and N=Navy.
Just as an FYI: Note that you can NOT mix these parts with standard compression fitting parts. The angle of the compression faces are different between them and will not seal properly.
I've had to take a crash course in flaring. I checked and the fittings and couplings I got and both are AN style. I ordered a 37 degree flaring tool as well. Hopefully this will stop this leak. Aluminum is a pain...
Hopefully this will stop this leak. Aluminum is a pain...
How much freon have you lost (2 full recharges?) and did you lose oil too? You may find the compressor is now bad if you get freon back in the system and it was run low on oil. I assume you don't have a recovery unit to recycle the freon and you had it all lost to the atmosphere each time it leaked. -- What’s the point of owning a supercar if you can’t scare yourself stupid from time to time?
Yes it has lost 2 charges. They were both very slow leaks and very little oil came out. The leak is high in the condenser. It was caused by a puncture from a drill bit when installing a surge protector/line monitor. The lines are in good condition but repairing this puncture on an aluminum line has been a royal pain.
My A/C guy charged the system last time and I have him on call again after I try one last time to fix this leak. If this doesn't work then I will get a new A/C. It was worth the time and effort to try to repair the system. Hopefully flaring the lines and installing proper aluminum fittings will do the trick.
Yes it has lost 2 charges. They were both very slow leaks and very little oil came out. The leak is high in the condenser. It was caused by a puncture from a drill bit when installing a surge protector/line monitor. The lines are in good condition but repairing this puncture on an aluminum line has been a royal pain.
My A/C guy charged the system last time and I have him on call again after I try one last time to fix this leak. If this doesn't work then I will get a new A/C. It was worth the time and effort to try to repair the system. Hopefully flaring the lines and installing proper aluminum fittings will do the trick.
"Surge protector/line monitor"? On an outdoor condenser unit? What does that consist of? Never heard of this on a condensing unit.
That drill bit could have drilled a very expensive hole.
Yes so far it has been a very expensive hole. Still not as much as a new unit but it still remains to be seen whether or not I'll need to buy one. I was enlarging a hole that was already present in the cabinet when the drill bit caught and went straight through a condenser line. I thought I was going to be sick...
Anyway here is what I installed that caused this chain of events.
My A/C guy wanted to replace the unit and he may be right. I used to be an auto mechanic and we would repair leaky A/C lines all the time with no problems. However this one has been hard to get to and apparently the compression fitting wasn't the way to go. Brazing or flared fittings seem to be much more reliable and so I decided that flaring the lines would be much easier than trying to braze aluminum.
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