AC question/help needed
 

I need to pull the evaporator housing out to find and fix a rattle down there. I also need to convert my refrigerant as I have the original R12 System and I’m sure it needs a recharge anyway. I’m in CA and my car is an all original 82SC.
As a first step to removing the evaporator housing I wanted to remove the refrigerant....no shop in CA will do this. They claim the R12 will damage or contaminate their equipment. So should I just open a connection somewhere and let pressure out to the atmosphere? Kind of an ironic situation right?
Any thoughts or advice greatly appreciated

A/c
 

Any A/C shop should be able to purge your system.

I transitioned our '86 from R12 to R134.

Where are you located?

Gerry

pm me as needed.

+1

You need to go to a shop that specializes in A/C, not just any shop who services modern cars. The contamination risk is real, but an A/C specialty shop will still have one or more sets of pump/guages and such dedicated to R12.

Any chance you can find the rattle without pulling the evaporator? Once you go down the path or an r-134 conversion, you’ll likely need to change everything including All the rubber hoses throughout the car....R12 is still available, yet expensive...even in California. I still run it in my 72 911....it cools much better than 134 and is Les prone to leakage. Whatever the case, you want to start by seeing if your system would hold a vacuum..
And sure, take a look around the smugglers box for the rattle.

If you pull up the passengers carpet and the wooden foot board, you can pull out the resister pack and get to the bottom of the evaporator housing, a little.

If your changing over to R134 and pulling the evaporator now would be the time to replace the hoses and drier. Your evaporator fins will likely be full of crud and will need a good cleaning. Shouldn't be that difficult to find someone to evacuate the R12.