I researched this and see some success's and some so so results. I got the 40$ Wall Mart special kit and thought I would give it a shot. Before I go for it though anyone have any advice or tricks that might help me become a success story with cold AC for the rest of the summer.

If you want your AC to give good, reliable service, my advice would be to return the conversion kit to Walmart then take your car to a technician for a charge of R12. From what I hear, if you don't change the lube and seals, you are setting yourself up for total system failure.

Yes the seals also need to be replaced. The OE seals are not compatible with R134 and will fall apart.

My Uncle was a mechanic, and auto air conditioning tech. I asked him about it, and he said that it has been proven that most vehicles even older stuff from the 70's and later can be converted without replacing any parts dryer, seals, o-rings, etc. He said he used to replace them it on every vehicle because the factory instructed it be done. Now he said I would just go for it and dump in the r134. If a part fails it most likely would have failed with new r-12 installed. Just be sure to follow instructions and not overfill with r134.

So I am gonna do that. Will let everyone know the results.

Why didn't you just ask your Uncle first? You asked for and got two responses here advising against doing the conversion and none in favor of it. You then decide to go ahead and do the conversion. Beware, any R12 oil (I think its mineral oil) left in you system will cause problems with R134 ,which requires PAG.

I think he was looking for us to give him advice specifically on the Raider to see if anyone had tried it. He's going ahead because no one said, "Yes, I tried this and it fragged my compressor and destroyed my AC."

Let us know how it turns out. If it trashes your AC, please come back and post to let us know.

Pmontero

Well I dumped two bottles of the 134a with sealer that came with the kit in today. It blew nice cold air. Gonna let it sit overnight and check the pressure tomorrow to see if it leaks down. I only got it charged to the lowest setting and it can take at least 1 more can of r134.

Had a couple issues though that I will have to address before I can use the AC driving. First the compressor had to be jumped out to run. The AC switch on the dash would not trigger it to come on. Second the condenser fan would not run either. Something not hooked up correctly in the wiring or the fan is dead. Got to troubleshoot that as well. Lastly the high pressure side converter fitting did not work. It had a lip on the end that wrapped over your existing fitting when you screwed it on. That lip was too long and hit the compressor before it bottomed out on the old fitting. So I left it off. You don't really need that side to fill it. It's simply for testing.

I was kinda surprised it cooled as good as it did sitting there idling with just the engine fan pulling air through the condenser.

So the verdict is still out till I can fully test everything driving the vehicle and put a little more stress on the system, but so far all is good.

I was actually hoping that someone had already done this when I posted the thread, and could tell me if it failed as well as why it failed. I'm 40 bucks into this so it's not like I invested a ton of cash. The truck is not worth a complete AC rebuild so this was my option more or less. I will let you guys know if something fails.

The compressor circuit has a low pressure switch, over just behind the core support on the pside. If you don't have enough pressure on there, the compressor won't run. Can't remember if the condenser fan is on the same circuit. I won't refer you to the wiring diagram. The a/c system wiring is incredibly complex, and you'll be chasing wires around in circles. It has about 3 diodes in the circuit, and if you don't catch them, the wiring makes no sense at all. There is also a thermo switch that kills the a/c if it doesn't ground like it's supposed to. On the water neck, small single wire. If you have an a/t, it also kills o/d.

You can bypass the low pressure switch by bridging the connectors together. If at this time the compressor engages you know your pressure is too low or you got a bad switch (rare) Theres also a switch in the thermostat housing that sends signal to ECU telling it to shut off the AC if the engine gets too hot, you can bypass that one too.

Like eddie said, the circuit is complex, start with the easiest things first so you can eliminate them before getting to the hard stuff..this thing goes into the ECU..been there done that.

Thanks guys I will bridge those connectors and see what the result is. It may very well be the low pressure since I only got it up to 35psi on the low side if I am not mistaken. It was basically the lowest spot on the dial with green/OK pressure. I know that r12 ran at a higher pressure so the pressure switch may not kick in till after that. It was blowing cold so I decided not to go for another can of r134 and put more stress on the system. I also noticed the site glass had not cleared yet and there were a ton of bubbles.

If it cools like it is might just jump it out with a switch on the dash for both the fan and compressor. The truck will not go into overdrive anyway, but I can deal with that.

I may have made a mistake anyway while filling. The second bottle never really completed filling, but the pressure had come up enough to get it cold. So I pulled it off the connector. That bottle was one that had the sealer and oil charge like the first. You are supposed to always charge with the 3rd/last bottle which has no sealer in it to clear the service ports of the sealer stuff. Hopefully it did not seal up the ports and I can still add more 134. I'm gonna try today if the storm lets up enough time for me to do it.