CM871 things to check after purchase?

[Waterloo]

(03-30-2016 )reconxlr Wrote:  Wealth of information! Wow thank you all will do all those checks at my local mechanic.
AC not blowing cold enough. I heard that could be as low as $10 fix
Overall truck drove fine from dealer to house 3hours 200mi drive.
Is there a forum that has instructions on how to install {**Content removed by protection bot**}? I could not find one.

Any info on where to get a good mandate?

The AC... I wish mine were a $10 fix... Watch Rawze's videos on the AC system, if you have not cooked your compressor, and find no metal in the system, you are probably ok... But, if you find metal in the dryer or anywhere in the system, get your check book out. Here is my story...

My symptoms, the AC system was howling like a Banshee and only blows semi cool air along with blowing the high pressure relief valve on the back of the compressor, spraying green slime/refrigerant everywhere! This was a regular occurrence with my truck... I was to the point of dropping three grand on a refrigerant recovery machine and do this fix myself, I was at the end of my rope! Especially after spending thousands of dollars trying to get something my old Honda has had for years, cold AC. Then I found this guy...

JD's Certified Truck Repair
3345 Greenfield Rd, Melvindale, MI 48122
(313) 383-4100

JD (John) is mainly a Big Truck AC repair shop. He has been rebuilding AC systems for 30 some years. This is the man that fixed my system and actually got it to work after two years of attempts elsewhere! And it was not a pleasant experience for John, he had my truck for a week and it drove him nuts. He still calls me to see how it is working.

John wound up rebuilding my new compressor, it had a bad pressure relief valve in it, saved me money there. He discovered my new condenser was blocked from the previous repair elsewhere. He replaced that. The expansion valve was cooked, he replaced that and the rest of the components. The condenser was the only part that was found to have metal blockage in it, but we still wound up replacing the dryer, etc. He flushed it multiple times and got her back together and it would still not blow cold... There is a temp sensor located up front by the CAC, he wound up having to pull that, put it on his bench and tested it. It was all over the map, he replaced that and the system worked. Now John called it a temp sensor, not the high pressure switch/sensor if I remember correctly. I had posted that part number here, but it was lost when the site went down.

When I came to pick her up, I got in her, let it run in the parking lot for an hour and then it started, she was again howling like a banshee! Back in the shop. The new expansion valve was pulled, and it was discovered that it was cooking the oil in the system and ruined the valve. After a bunch of phone calls, it was discovered that these expansion valves are adjustable! He flushed the system again, found no metal, put a new expansion valve on and backed out the brass button on the expansion valve and it worked. It took me a week of tweaking this damn thing to get it to stop howling, and it was all outdoor temp related. The hotter it was outside, the more she howled. Back it out some more, like I said, it took a week to get it right and it seemed to work fine, ice cold air.

One thing too, you cannot flush out these condensers, the little radiator on the front side of you CAC/Radiator. If your compressor has had any failures, found any metal in the system, just replace that condenser, it is a throw away. Get it aftermarket, as the dealer will rape you. A new condenser is right around $135, I think that is what I paid at JD's.

I tell you, the AC on mine has been an incredible nightmare. The sad thing is, I am going to have to repeat this nightmare when I get my truck back from the in frame... Just a gut feeling.

One thing I would do, is buy your parts aftermarket, stay away from the dealer. The only thing you should need to purchase at the dealer are the thermistors and any lines, like the high pressure line that is prone to failure due to its location and vibrations. Everything else can be sourced locally or off the internet for pennies on the dollar compared to what the dealer will charge you. Also, keep an eye on the International dealers for periodic sales on AC compressors. They had them on sale last year for $149 or something like that. I bought a spare.

If, you cannot get your system to work properly, and do not have an independent Big Truck AC repair shop, make an appointment with John and get a load up here to Detroit. I swear by this man and his ability to get these ProStar AC systems working properly. And trust me when I say that there are allot of guys out here with these same issues, this is well known in the ProStar community. These AC systems are CRAP.