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Wed Sep 03, 2014 11:02 am

I've got an 88 Westy with a Tiico engine conversion. I was told by a good mechanic that Vanagain had done the conversion because it was done correctly :)

I'm wondering if anyone knows ball park A/C hose size and lengths? My mechanic says that my two long hoses running forward the compressor are leaking pretty badly (and one has been spliced). I need to find a local hose place and get hoses made, and am wondering what diameter and general lengths these are. I'm wanting to call a few places and see if they can give me quotes for the hoses and know they will need to know diameter and lengths (generally).

Thanks!
Bob

Wed Sep 03, 2014 11:12 am

I think it is better to remove the old hoses and take them in to use a patterns for the new hoses.

Wed Sep 03, 2014 11:44 am

I bought my hose and fittings from http://coldhose.com

# 6 (5/16") Barrier A/C Hose 25 Feet
BH625
$55.00

# 8 (13/32") Barrier A/C Hose 25 Feet
BH825
$61.25

# 10 (1/2") Barrier A/C Hose Per Foot
Length
15 ft
BH10
$41.25

These lengths allowed me to replace every hose in the van, with a little bit left over for mistakes, etc. I used all steel fittings in the refit. I've got a 91 Vanagon Westfalia camper. Things might be different for other types of vans.

With all fittings included it was about $265. They ship fast.

You're going to need a crimper to do it yourself, and it's a big, all-day job. Removing the old hoses for templates is a good idea, but you don't have to be careful if you know what's what (with regard to what hose does what) and how to properly crimp fittings.

Good luck!

kourt

Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:03 pm

When I installed my vintage air, I ordered lengths barrier bulk hose and the hose end fittings designed to work with barrier hose. I installed all the fittings, routed the hoses and cut to fit. I used blue masking tape to mark the orientation and removed all the hoses. My local hydraulic shop crimped them up for me while I waited. No charge. I gave the guy $20 for his time.

Since installs can vary year to year, you'd be best as suggested to remove your existing hoses now and use them as a reference. I bought all my hose and ends from Vintage Air. AC rocks. Good luck.

Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:11 pm

Thanks all. Great input to give me a ball park idea of lengths.

I was planning on removing hoses and taking them with me. I actually did that when I first got the A/C hooked up. PO had not reconnect A/C after engine conversion and compressor is in a different place compared to original engine. I wen to a commercial A/C trucking company and they but the hose and put fittings on it for me for $65. Took 30 minutes :)

I'm considering having my local VW mechanic do the install, but I'll get the hoses, etc. I'm thinking my 6 hour job will be 2.5 for him and that's $200 well spent plus the hoses. Either way...not until next Spring. I don't need the A/C anymore this season :)

Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:24 pm

Kourt's advice above is excellent and very helpful. I dealt with ColdHose too for some of the fittings I used in my front AC project. ColdHose is the hose division of Nostalgic Air.

I have a couple further suggestions:
1. Buy a new parallel flow condenser; They are quite cheap and are vastly more efficient than the factory unit. This will give you good performance if you decide to use R134A as your refrigerant. In my opinion, however, RedTek is a far better choice for refrigerant. Automotive AC techs will not install RedTek in an on-highway vehicle. So, if the evacuation and filling of your system is going to be done by an auto AC tech, you will be stuck with R134A and the factory Vanagon condenser will not be very effective - - it was designed for R12 refrigerant. The aftermarket condenser has the additional benefit of using standard AC fittings, not specialized VW fittings.

2. You can use an aftermarket receiver-drier if you want. They are a very low-tech device. Again, the aftermarket units use standard AC fittings.

3. You can make up you own hoses, dry-fit the fittings into the hoses (be careful to mark the orientation of the hose to the fitting so it does not end up facing the wrong direction), and have an AC shop do just the crimping. The real grunt work, which AC shops will charge a lot to do, is to remove all the old hoses, dry-fit the fittings on replacement hoses, and then crimp and finally, install the hoses. Doing that grunt work yourself saves a lot of the expense and AC shops hate that dirty work anyway.

Wed Sep 03, 2014 3:48 pm

I agree on the parallel flow condenser.

The p-flow condensers being sold by Vintage Air or Nostalgic Air have all been manufactured by Global Air:

http://globalair.us/2.1condensers.html

This URL gives you an idea of the array of sizes they make. I found that the 16x22 sold by Nostalgic AC is a perfect fit:

http://nostalgicac.com/condensers/unpainted-condenser/16-x-22-superflow-r-134a-condenser.html

I also tried a 16x24, but I had to cut some of the side flanges to make the radiator cooling switch fit neatly. It wasn't ideal, so I went with 16x22 and that keeps things maintainable up front.

I own a MasterCool manual crimper:

http://www.amazon.com/MASTERCOOL-Manual-Hose-Line-Crimping/dp/B001DUPKJM

...and that is a really great tool to have, and can be resold on Craigslist if you don't want to keep it. Here I am crimping up some hose in my Wilton hitch mount vise (I don't have a garage, so I have to improvise --ha! did you see what I did there?):

If you decide to replace all the hoses, pay careful attention to two things:

1. what type of binary or trinary switch ports does your van have? You may have to reinvent this part of your setup. The OEM VW binary or trinary switch ports are not easy to find in the wild. I went with a Nostalgic Air trinary switch+port combo, and that worked well, but it's a departure from OEM parts. You can overcome this problem entirely by buying an aftermarket receiver/drier that has one or two switch ports on it, which eliminates the need for special switch port fittings on your new AC lines (but you'll likely have to run longer wires to serve the relocated switches). Something like this, with sight glass and two switch ports:

http://nostalgicac.com/driers-valves/driers/mgb-black-oring-drier.html

2. where the high pressure port is located. In original installs of certain years (camper vans) it's located in the rear cabinet near the D pillar. I moved mine to the open space behind the driver side rear taillight, next to the low side port. This allows you to service the AC system and close the engine cover/tailgate to allow the evaporator to work more efficiently during charging and testing, which more realistically represents how the AC will function when driving the van. This is a subtle distinction, but for me it saved time and made charging easier and more accurate. I keep lots of junk in that back cabinet (sheets, rainfly, etc) and not having to empty it when servicing the AC is a big plus.

Your port locations may be very different based on your conversion. I have a Bostig in my van, so the compressor is down low on the passenger side. Every AC line had to run over the transmission and back. That would explain why I bought so much hose--I knew some creative, longer routes would be necessary.

I really hope your AC project is a success. Mine is still a work in progress, but folks on the Samba have helped me a great deal, and I want to pass on the favor.

kourt

Wed Sep 03, 2014 7:21 pm

Thanks for all the great input Kourt and Howesight. It was changed over to R134 when I first got it going. No one would touch R12, and I've got enough projects with the little know-how that I have:)

I'm filing away this info until next Spring when I Summerize it.

I appreciate the sharing of info. If anyone's looking to replace their original warped wooden panels with plastic (like GoWesty's), I'll write up something on it.

I spent $320 (panels and fasteners) and have great black ABS plastic panels after working with a local plastics company.

Tue May 05, 2015 6:10 pm

rsxsr wrote: When I installed my vintage air, I ordered lengths barrier bulk hose and the hose end fittings designed to work with barrier hose. I installed all the fittings, routed the hoses and cut to fit. I used blue masking tape to mark the orientation and removed all the hoses. My local hydraulic shop crimped them up for me while I waited. No charge. I gave the guy $20 for his time...
Sounds good, but I had to cut the old hoses in multiple places just to get 'em out;
I can't IMAGINE reinstalling new hoses with the fittings already crimped on...???!!!

What did you do? Can the bare hose be routed & fittings crimped in place,
or do I need to think more creatively about reinstalling these suckers...???
How to get the fittings through the rubber grommets in the sheet metal, etc...???

I understand how easy this would be with the EZ-clip fittings, but man, I'm not
made of money! ($45 for a single fitting that's only $12 +crimping...???) :roll:

- Dave "Cheap SOB"

Tue May 05, 2015 7:04 pm

I pulled my old lines with the fittings and then I ran my all newly made lines with fittings thru the grommets and body members. It can be done. Many curse words were used though.....

Tue May 05, 2015 7:08 pm

^^^ I can't wait...Uff da!

Wed May 06, 2015 5:50 am

I have my old binary switch and the AC fittings still on the cut hoses, if anyone wants to pay for the shipping. I used a trinary switch from NA.

The Eaton Aeroquip EZ clip system works very well, with smaller diameter GH134 hoses, that's very easy to thread through the vanagon. If you buy the hose and fittings at retail, they are too expensive, but I got most of mine off Ebay at a bargain price.

Wed May 06, 2015 6:30 am

I did my AC project... twice!

Last year, when I made the posts above, I was rebuilding the stock Westy AC system. That worked only "okay" for Texas.

I bought the Small Car in-dash AC system and installed it this spring.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=591615&highlight=air+conditioning

That Small Car system required me to rip out all the old Westy system, including about half of the hoses.

Lessons learned:

1. I don't regret going with conventional AC hose with crimp fittings, but using Aeroquip EZ clip probably would have been slightly easier, in that it would have saved me the trouble of creatively finding ways to use my MasterCool manual crimper underneath the van (I bolted the crimper to a 2x4 and held the 2x4 with my legs while crimping under the van--use your imagination and picture that!). Those Aeroquip fittings are also slightly harder to source--I can buy conventional fittings at any AC shop in town, there are pros and cons to both systems.

2. Build your system with as few fittings or joints as possible. If you can find a way to put the binary/trinary switch on a port on the receiver/drier, do that. I did that with my Small Car system. I don't recall if the Behr r/d has a switch port--I think it does--but other generic r/d products have them.

The Small Car system is wonderful.

kourt

Wed May 06, 2015 10:03 am

dhaavers wrote: rsxsr wrote: When I installed my vintage air, I ordered lengths barrier bulk hose and the hose end fittings designed to work with barrier hose. I installed all the fittings, routed the hoses and cut to fit. I used blue masking tape to mark the orientation and removed all the hoses. My local hydraulic shop crimped them up for me while I waited. No charge. I gave the guy $20 for his time...
Sounds good, but I had to cut the old hoses in multiple places just to get 'em out;
I can't IMAGINE reinstalling new hoses with the fittings already crimped on...???!!!

What did you do? Can the bare hose be routed & fittings crimped in place,
or do I need to think more creatively about reinstalling these suckers...???
How to get the fittings through the rubber grommets in the sheet metal, etc...???

I understand how easy this would be with the EZ-clip fittings, but man, I'm not
made of money! ($45 for a single fitting that's only $12 +crimping...???) :roll:

- Dave "Cheap SOB"

Dave, I installed the fittings where they belonged and then ran the hose to each fitting. I slipped the hoses on to the barbs and used a marker and masking tape to mark the index. Carefully removed the hoses with the ends and coiled them into a cardboard box.

My van did not have AC originally, so my AC lines follow along the frame rails. No little holes to pass them through. If you are using factory holes, it might get tight. I recall the aftermarket AC units had larger holes to accommodate the ends and fat grommets to take up the space. I used a bulk head fitting where the lines go through the front firewall to the evaporator. Main reason was I wanted to get the dashboard back in and start driving the van. By using the bulkhead fitting I was able to completely finish the evaporator housing install and the dashboard. Hope that helps.

Sat Mar 19, 2022 2:05 pm

I know this is an old maybe dead post, but do you know what hoses go where? I am making a Vanagon without an AC have an AC, so I need a hand with something like...

number 10 hose goes from low side condenser to whatever
Number 8 hose goes from yadda to yadda
Number 6 hose goes from yadda to yadda

Sat Mar 19, 2022 2:20 pm

VWHotSauce wrote: I know this is an old maybe dead post, but do you know what hoses go where? I am making a Vanagon without an AC have an AC, so I need a hand with something like...

number 10 hose goes from low side condenser to whatever
Number 8 hose goes from yadda to yadda
Number 6 hose goes from yadda to yadda

Like this?

https://volkswagen.7zap.com/en/usa/vanagon/va/1990-78/2/260-41025/

Sat Mar 19, 2022 2:21 pm

This should help. There is an assumption that the condenser is a new style with side fittings.

Sat Mar 19, 2022 2:25 pm

Here is a generic diagram with hose sizes shown.