All right, here's a little life hack - if you guys didn't already know this, sometimes you have contactors that have lugs. Sometimes you have contactors that have screws. If you take off the screw from the lug, there's a screw below it, and then you can put a normal screw right there. This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition all right.

Today we have a package unit here that has a bad compressor. Um, let's see, we've got oil everywhere, had a service technician here and one of the compressors is shorted to ground. Now i don't know what caused it we're going to dig into that, but i've gotten all clear to go ahead and replace the compressor looks like it's. The second stage compressor it's this one right here, because you scratched off the data plate as i've shown before, underneath the copeland tag is another tag, so if you ever can't find it on a copic compressor, pull up that tag, there'll be another one underneath there.

So from the looks of it, we're gon na be fixing some electrical crap too, because this thing's a mess um, i'm just currently working on bringing my whole van up here right now, so we're going to get started on this guy. So it is the second stage compressor. We don't know why it went bad um. It definitely looks like it was overheating, because the stickers are kind of melted, uh, the system's out of gas completely.

So we're going to put some nitrogen and r22 in it to find out where the refrigerant leak is. It might be the terminals, but i don't see oil around the terminal, so there could be a leak somewhere else and we want to find it before. We spend a bunch of time changing a compressor so put about 50 psi of r22 vapor in there and then now i'm dumping nitrogen. On top of it.

It doesn't doesn't sound like it's pissing out of the the compressor, so we're gon na see we'll get it up to about 150 200 psi and then we'll see. If we can find this leak um, we just want to make sure that it's actually repairable leak before we go and dump a giant compressor in this thing. So all right. So this is an interesting one.

I i haven't seen this in a long time if i've even seen it before it's actually got a giant crack in the suction line right here. Interesting so and it's it's running right here, so it makes me wonder if this compressor was vibrating or something really bad. Yeah, that's a rather large leak, but it's right here, big boy. I can see it actually there's a big crack vertical right there.

So we'll end up redoing a section of that line. Probably i've got. I brought some soft copper with me and we'll make a bend out of it. Um yeah and we'll go from there interesting, but i don't know why this guy shorted either we may have to you know, put the compressor in to figure that out.

But okay, at least. We know that it's a repairable leak. So now we can proceed. So what we're gon na do, because this unit is probably beat down we're gon na pull the entire top we're gon na split the condenser.

We can try to straighten that thing out. I don't know it's so old. It might not straighten, but we'll give it a shot and we'll clean the inside um, we'll uh check the economizer wiring all that stuff. I don't think the economizer's hooked up on this thing so we'll definitely go through it all.

So all right, uh got nitrogen flowing through the system. Um we're gon na unsweat the compressor real, quick cut out the dryer and start piecing the system now because uh. This is a this unit. Shorted, we don't know.

What's going on. We know the system was out of refrigerant, i'm going to go ahead and change the pressure controls because i don't know if they failed or not - and i don't want to you know, put everything back in and then find out. The pressure controls don't work because something caused that compressor potentially to continue to run is what my assumption is when, because why else would it burn out? You know, i don't know anyways, i'm guessing at this point, but um getting my torch ready. So usually, i have a couple different tips.

I usually braise with a zero tip or a number two tip okay um, but in this case i'm gon na be doing some big stuff and unsweating. So i'm gon na go ahead and put my rosebud tip now. Technically, this is a number 15. it's way overkill, but the thing i want to stress people ask me all the time.

What do you set your pressures for your torches? You need to lean on the manufacturer of the tip and of the torch, manifolds and stuff. Okay. So this is a victor tip right here. So when you buy this, it actually has the settings on the back of the the packaging to tell you where to set the oxygen and acetylene okay.

So you always want to lean on the manufacturer. Read the installation, instructions and all that stuff, and it tells you where to set your pressures now coming up in the trade. I was always taught just to do it by feel by whatever and it works it does, but you potentially waste gases that you don't need to waste and your heat may be affected accordingly too. If you have one too high one too low, so always lean on the manufacturer, so okay, this was difficult to come out.

I was going to have to redo it anyway, so i just cut it up here we're going to pull this guy out. I just got it unbolted and then we got to get in there and purge the system to try to clear any contaminants, because it was a shorted compressor. So all right got the new compressor in it's bolted down. We have not removed the plugs yet because we want to leave them closed as long as possible.

Some things i need to do is: i need to fit a new sporland suction line. Filter dryer right there we're gon na put in an hh model that has the high wax removal um, but i have to have my piece right here going to the compressor before i do that. So that way, i don't make the because you're gon na have to cut it and put an extension. You know and cut out a section of pipe, so we don't want to make it too long or too short um.

But while i'm doing that, i also need to purge the evaporator, so we're gon na we're gon na put high pressure, nitrogen in through the suction side and purge through the liquid to try to clean the orifices. So these are fixed orifice metering devices right here right here. Those are all metering devices right inside there there's a little piston and they do get plugged up. They get restricted all the time on these carriers, especially the old ones that don't get maintained properly.

So we're going to do our best to clean it with dry nitrogen just flowing through the system. It's not perfect, but i made this piece right here comes up swaged, it all right! I'm up inside the ac right now and uh. It's gon na be kind of tricky because my other tech isn't here isn't back yet, but i'm going to attempt to blow nitrogen through the suction line. Have it come out the fixed orifice metering devices, but i'm also going to try to heat these up.

Just a little bit to see if there's any wax, buildup or anything if it might melt off it's going to be tricky um, it's not gon na be perfect at all all right, so that was quite a bit of stuff that came out now. It could be oil too, you know um, but uh we're gon na give it a little bit more. I kind of wanted to let it calm down, because some of it went down into the restaurant. I didn't want them to freak out down there.

So we're going to give it another go and see if we can clear any more of it about to brazen the suction, dryer and uh compressor, i'm just kind of getting everything ready. I got some of the heat blocking compound on there. I got to hook up the nitrogen, it's kind of a pain because my other guy is just about to get back, but i'm having to jump in and out in and out. I ran out of nitrogen a minute ago.

It's just life: it's how it works, but um we got ta, get this dryer sweat in too. So i'm gon na work on that all right got the nitrogen hooked up. I got that dryer fitted in. We just need to braise everything.

Now i wanted to clarify something too: i was thinking about it after i just said it on the last clip um, my tech, not being here, i'm not frustrated with him. I sent him on a shopping spree to get all kinds of stuff pressure, controls wire to fix this crap and everything so and contactors um. No, i just it was just kind of a bummer that i didn't have someone here. While i'm, you know doing this hard thing, so i just got to keep climbing in and out in and out, but it's all good, so so so so so so i'm almost done brazing and uh.

It was a little tight to get the wet rag stuff. So i'm not too worried about the dryer, but i didn't get it on that, but the bottom i've got oil coming out, so i've got ta figure that out, because i can't braise that one, so i'm gon na have to purge something or figure out how to Get that oil out of the line and look at that, so i'm purging nitrogen and it's pushing the oil out of the liquid line. There's like a little trap and it's sitting there bubbling out right now. So what i'm going to end up doing is cutting it right here, and i wanted to put a fitting here, so i could get liquid line pressure anyway.

So i'm going to cut it right here blow this out. Braise it in we're gon na have to change that pressure control too and uh yeah. While i'm doing that too, i'm gon na go ahead and switch to my smaller tip, because i don't need this big giant thing all right. We got the pressure controls in um new pressure controls, so now i need to secure the dryer somehow and i just need to get out and look at everything clean up.

My messes get kind of organized it's chaos in here right now. I get ahead of myself because i want to do all this wiring, but i need to do the pressure test first and get the evacuation running and then i'll have all the time in the world to fix all this wiring and stuff so uh setting it up. For the pressure test right now, we're gon na get it up to about 150 psi and then uh. Let it sit for a while and see what happens all right.

We passed the pressure test, the vacuum pump running because i brazed on an access fitting. I was able to use my normal core removal tool right there on the liquid line and then i'm using the core removal tool on the suction line. Filter dryer. I got the gas ballast open, we're going to run it down and then it's already dropping we'll get it to about 1500 microns and then close this one off.

So we get a true vacuum reading getting there we've just been doing little things, the evacuation's still running. We're about 700 microns and that's a true vacuum. That's valved off over here, um we're redoing the wiring. I got rid of all this stuff right here.

I already cleaned up the control wiring. So it's nice and neat. This is tucked up in here changing the contactors. So just trying to stay busy all right: here's a little life hack - if you guys didn't already know this, sometimes you have contactors that have lugs.

Sometimes you have contactors that have screws. If you take off the screw from the lug, there's a screw below it, and then you can put a normal screw right there. I wanted to point something out, so i can't straighten the fins really on this guy, because i can tell these fins have been straightened before and uh. I'm not gon na spend hours.

Trying to do this, like um you'd, have to get in there with a screwdriver and yeah. It's not really gon na work. I was just carefully rinsing the condenser without getting my pump too wet um, but we're kicking butt man we're at 400 microns 414. So we're going to go ahead and valve this guy off and then do a decay test, i'm going to take off the vacuum pump and then i got to really thoroughly rinse as much of the oil stuff.

Out as i can. I am ready to put the top on um. We have been in decay for i'd, say 10 minutes and we're at 5 42. So it's kicking ass man um.

I wanted to blow this out right here because it's full of dust, but i started to and because the building's in a negative air pressure it all sucked into the blower. So i had to stop. We need to get all the panels on and then i'll blow it once we get it running, but i rinsed it all out as best as possible. We're looking good we're going to put the top on and then test everything and hope that i wired it all correctly.

So if you look the wiring, i did all the low voltage, thermostat wire, nice and good. So it's you know, cut all the extra off wired. It all in replaced all three contactors got rid of that crazy um wiring mess they had going on and nicely secured it up in there like i've, been doing, um went ahead and did you know the contactors and all that good stuff? So, okay, we're looking good um. I want to fix all this, but this is going to a smoke detector and that's actually for another day, because we actually have a call for the smoke detector for this unit.

So we might be redoing it all uh when we do that, so we'll save that for that day, i'm charging it we've got about five pounds of gas in it at the moment, but i'm just doing a quick leak check on all my brace joints just to Make sure and nothing - and i still got to secure that dryer back there too. I better hit the pressure controls just go back here, yeah, so there's no leaks on my braised joints, so we're good um we're just waiting for this guy to finish. Charging we're at five pounds, seven ounces. I think that's all it's going to take from this cylinder, so we're looking for, like 8.1 pounds, get the top on we're still screwing it in but um with the condenser fan motors, i shortened all the wiring and made it so.

It's super short i'm going to clean it up a bit more in here. Tighten it up so that way we don't have a bunch of excess wires connected into here. We went ahead and changed the run cap because it was testing bad as usual. These things always fail: um yeah, so we're looking pretty good uh we're about ready to try to start this thing up, and i may have to change some phase rotations and stuff, because i may have mixed in some a few things up all right.

The first stage was acting like it was a little bit low and i just gave it a little bit of refrigerant and it's looking a lot better we're getting that superheat number much closer to where it should be. Um we're gon na check the second stage. Right now so far, we're looking pretty darn good approach. Temperatures coming down, yeah it's about 91 degrees outside all right.

The second stage is looking pretty good, it's kind of moving around as the system's still stabilizing out, but i don't think it needs any more refrigerant um. I don't know what's going on with measure quick today, but it's it's all jacked up on the airflow or not the airflow, the btu capacity saying 178 000 btus. That's not accurate, not accurate at all. This is a and a half ton unit um and something that you know you struggle with on these units too.

Like i don't know, if you guys notice, um liquid line temperature, saying it's really cold well, what's happening is half of the condensers in the sun half of it's not so as you move it around trying to find a happy medium, it's gon na it's gon na Give you some some weird readings too, so you always got ta kind of play with it and find the the right place for the condenser. You know for the outdoor air sensor, but this thing's running, i don't see any problems with it. We're gon na tell them to keep an eye on it. Um yeah we're good to go um.

So as far as this unit goes, why did the compressor short to ground? You know i'm making an educated guess and i'm gon na say that i think that the the unit ran out of gas and the pressure control failed and it ran without refrigerant and the reason why i think that is because the refrigerant or the oil didn't smell Burnt, okay - and there was oil stuck in the evaporator and when i blew it out, it wasn't coming out nasty and gross. So my thoughts are that the compressor um was not moving refrigerant through the system and the oil was not traveling through the system when it shorted to ground, and that's why we don't have a severe burn in the system. We don't have nasty oil all throughout, even when i blew out the condenser, it wasn't coming out nasty so and the compressor doesn't even really smelt burnt, but it was shorter to ground. So i think that it just ran without refrigerant because of the cracked suction line, and you know - and i think it just didn't - shut off.

Possibly i don't know you know it's hard to say because i don't see it but everything's checking out good um yeah. That's it we're gon na call this one done. You know it's, it can be very frustrating when you don't know exactly why a compressor failed. That's one of the difficult things too explaining to a customer.

You know when you have a bad compressor and you know you don't have any idea as to why it failed and then they ask you to replace it and you say: okay, i'm going to replace it, but i have no reason why it fit. You know i don't know why it went bad and i won't know until i put the new compressor in and then you know we have a bad metering device or whatever. It's always that tricky thing: okay, so uh. The way that i go about that is, of course, cover your ass explain to the customer.

You know there's no way of knowing until i put it in, but at the same time, when i replace the compressor, i pour the oil out of the old one. Uh make sure it actually had oil in it. Uh try to clear the metering devices if it has the fixed, orifice metering devices oftentimes. If i have a burnout or a grounded compressor, i'm typically going to change the expansion valve.

If there is one on an air conditioning system, we're going to put liquid line filters, suction line, filter dryers, i'm going to change the contactors and we're uh, you know just going to go ahead and put new refrigerant in the system too. Okay, those are kind of a dead given when it comes to a grounded, compressor of any sort. Okay, uh typical compressor replacement. I might not change the expansion valve.

It just depends: okay, we're going to evaluate the system as we go through now, as i was going through this, i made some educated guesses, hey. You know what this is a carrier unit with the fixed orifice metering device or the accurate or whatever you want to call it, and i tried to clear that now: i've never had really good luck, clearing the metering devices and unfortunately i didn't get it on film. I just explained it to you guys: the camera clip for some reason disappeared, but there was like smoke and crap coming out of the evaporator, because i think remember. I showed you that there was oil in that liquid line.

Well, i think there was some oil in that evaporator and, as i was blowing it out and heating it up, it was just kind of um smoking a lot. It's always possible that there was something in the actual metering devices too it's hard to say, okay, but i personally have not had very good experience when it comes to clearing those things by using a torch, but i've never caused any problems per se. But you know if i have a plugged up metering device. Typically, if i try to you know to blow nitrogen through the backwards way and heat it up.

Typically, it's still plugged up when i'm done. That's just been my experience with it, but you know i i personally would rather go ahead and change the entire evaporator with the metering device attached to it and call it a day. If i have one that's plugged up, keep in mind my opinion on the matter. The majority of the time when they are plugged up, in my opinion, it's typically because the oil is cooked in the system, the customer hasn't been maintaining the system.

It's been running with high head pressure, all the time the condensing temps can get in too high, because the condenser is dirty oftentimes. These units have split row condensers like this one did so it's a double road, condenser and a lot of technicians. Don't know that so they never clean the inside one you'll often see the second stage, be the one that has the plugged up metering devices, typically more so than the first stage. In my opinion, that second stage is actually the inner condenser on that one.

So anyways um, you know i try my best with these jobs. Okay, i try to assume you know hey. This is going to be a problem and i try to fix it things like you know. I take advantage of the situation.

I was there working on the ac. I had the top pulled off of it. You know what i looked at, that economizer wiring, the economizer was already disconnected, so i ripped all the wiring out of the economizer. Like i've been doing a lot.

You guys have probably seen it on a bunch of my videos. I ripped all the control wiring out and you know wired the system without the economizer wiring, because that's typically a place where you get low voltage short. So i'm eliminating a problem same thing with the incoming line voltage to the unit. Every carrier unit comes with those stupid wire nuts on them, and everybody always wires into those wire nuts and it looks like crap and it becomes a problem later on down the line.

So i redid the main feed coming into the ac too okay, and i showed you that little tip with the contactors, so in this situation, this unit originally had screws going to the contactors okay. Well, because i came in with the new wire, i didn't have connectors big enough to go to the new wire, so i change the contactors over to the lug style, contactors, okay, but that created a problem because on the bottom of one of the contactors i didn't Have a big enough electrical connector to change it over or i didn't have a it wasn't going to work because there was multiple wires going into one connector and i needed a lug on that or a screw on that one. So it was just kind of a pain, but that's why i use that little life hack, where you take the lug off at the bottom of the contactor, and if you guys have ever worked on any of the train package units sometimes on the train units. They'll have screws on one side and lugs on the other and you're like man, i got to get an oem contactor.

Well, technically, you don't. You can go to the supply house if you buy the right ones. These are the mars contactors, i believe and uh. You know the lug will come off and you can just put a normal screw there.

So i thought that was a pretty cool, little tip um, so other than that the repair went pretty basic. You know just purging the system with nitrogen making sure there was no oil traps, which i did find oil so cleared it out of the lines and stuff um and - and i didn't do an autopsy on this compressor. But i did pour it out and there was plenty of oil in the compressor. So i wasn't concerned about that.

You know it's natural that oil does flow through the system um. I did go back with r22 refrigerant, i'm not using an alternative at this time. Uh customer, you know, i give my customers the option um and you know they. They they take my advice and just stick with r22.

I'm not gon na here's, my issue with the different blends and different refrigerants and different flavors. Okay, i'm a refrigeration guy. I do air conditioning and refrigeration so right now as it stands, i carry 410a r134a, r290, r22, r448a and r404a on my vans. Okay state of california wants us to stop using r404a um.

It's going to be spreading across the united states too. So that's why i carry r448a okay um, but if i was using an alternative for r22, i'd have to still keep r22 on. My van i'd have to keep the new alternative on there and there's a tricky thing with some of the alternatives. You have some that work better with medium temperature, some that work better with high temperature.

Okay, so i'd potentially have to carry two r22 alternatives. It's just too many different flavors on the van now. If i had to, i would do it okay, but in my situation it's easier for me. I just stock r22 and i go back in with r22.

The customer understands that the customer's aware, because they approve the quotes, okay and if you really look at it, yeah r22 can be expensive, but in the grand scheme of it, it's really not that bad. Okay, i also understand you know we got to worry about the environment and all that stuff like i get that okay, but i also have to be practical, and if it's not illegal for me to use it, i'm gon na continue to use it until i can't. Okay, i'm not venting it into the atmosphere. If i didn't buy that r22, someone else would okay, so i'm not going to buy the whole thing where people say.

I have a responsibility to stop using it because it exists they're, not manufacturing it in the united states anymore, they're, not importing it into the united states, they're cleaning up the old r22 and putting it back into service. Okay, so that refrigerant exists. Whether or not i use it or someone else uses it, okay, so it's it's gon na, be there until it goes away. I'm gon na continue to use it.

Okay, so we'll get off of that topic, but yeah. So i stick with r22. So i just try to do my best um, something else that i didn't show on camera. I had the other tech with me was we went through and we vacuumed out the indoor blower assembly, we vacuum out the evaporator assembly.

You know just trying to stay busy and keep um. You know keep on top of the unit making sure that it's operating properly cleaned and all that good stuff. Okay, so i'm gon na wrap this one up. I really really appreciate you guys making it to the end of the video as usual uh.

I have uh want to remind you that i do live streams monday, evenings 5 p.m, pacific on youtube, work permitting; okay, so i've missed the last two live streams, one of them because it was the labor day holiday in the united states and the other one, because I was too busy at work and i couldn't get home in time. Okay, so, as we go into the summer, it happens. Okay, there's times that i can't make the live streams, but i try to okay. Uh also go live on the hvac overtime youtube channel.

With my buddy on friday evenings with my buddies, i should say again work permitting. You know. I've missed a few of those shows too, because works kind of crazy, but i try okay, i appreciate all of you guys, if you guys have not already please consider supporting the channel there's a couple different ways: you can do it uh simply watching the videos. Is the easiest way leave me? Some feedback give me some.

You know thumbs up thumbs down whatever you think you can support me via patreon, you can become a patron, which is basically a way for you to make a monthly commitment. You know there's a couple different tiers, uh you can choose to donate to the channel. You can become a youtube channel member which is just like patreon. You make a monthly commitment and it charges your card every month.

You know, and you just help to donate to the channel - you can go to my website hvacrvideos.com and i have merchandise available. I've got shirts hats, beanies sweaters couple different uh shirt, designs, colors, so those are other ways and then you actually get something and you're helping to support the channel. My wife actually is the one that handles the merch delivery. You know she she comes in here.

She packages them she ships them, so you can help to keep her busy. Okay uh! You can also, if you guys, are interested in purchasing any tools um and you find that true tech tools has a good. You know whatever you want, you like their prices and stuff go to the website. Truetechtools.Com uh pick what you want and on checkout you can use my offer code, big picture one word and you can get a discount on your order.

I get a small commission from that, so that's a really easy way to support the channel too you're purchasing a tool that you need and you use my offer code. You still get a great price. I get a small commission from it. It helps to support me if you guys know what you want to purchase from true tech tools.

Send me an email and tell me what item you want and i can actually generate an affiliate link. When i do that, you can still use my offer code. You can still get the same discount, but i actually get a small commission uh just from the affiliate link to on top of the discount code. So it actually helps to support me even more okay, uh yeah, now that i've begged you for all your money.

No, but i really do appreciate you guys, you don't have to send me your money or anything like that, but the easiest way to support it is just to watch the videos. Okay, but anyways, i'm gon na wrap it up. You guys are awesome. I will catch.

You on the next one.