[justplumducky]

27-yr. old Mobile Home Nordyne Package Unit with capillary tube behind a front access panel.

1/4" long x 1/16" wide (if that wide) hole/rub spot? Supply counter tech said braze over it or braze in another piece.

Not sure what caused this, but the capillary tube had to be pushed in some when I was reinstalling access panel, cause it was rubbing against the access panel. Didn't stop to see if the damaged spot of tube matched up to the panel spot. Someone else had inspected this unit some time ago, so don't know if he had pulled the tube outward some for inspection or what.

Can be repaired? My tech/partner hasn't seen it yet, but says brazing over it might be difficult due to brazing material dropping into the hole.

 

[yuri]

It may be difficult for that reason plus you may get oil burning there (contaminating the weld or blowing it out) when you go to slifoss it unless you pull a vacuum at the same time. There is always a few psi of freon and oil spewing out when you weld unless you pull a vacuum.

I would heat it enough to glob some silfosss around the hole and let it cool then build it up from that and hope it does not fall in. Takes lots of skill and expertise to do that. Also a very small tip on a oxy acetylene welding torch not a turbotorch.

 

[supers05]

I've repaired those before. I hate it.

Blow some nitrogen through it, then the trick will be to have absolutely no pressure inside.
Usually there's an access port near by. (sometimes right on the suction header) I've removed that schrader valve core when fixing these. Sanding the surface will help tremendously.

My preference is to replace the coil at the point, but sometimes for a friend I'll try a little harder to save them a buck.

Cheers!

 

[BayouRunner]

I've done a bunch of those over the years. I agree with Yuri on using the silfoss, the stick solder 95/5 and it will work. And zero pressure for sure. These guys are right on the money.

 

[yuri]

Yeah after many many years of replacing service valves and silver soldering with pure silver solder you get to HATE oil and residual pressure in any system.:vs_mad:

I once had a weird job. Boss said there was a water leak on a 2" copper water line running thru the scrub area in the OR where I worked. Mysterious water running down the wall. He lifted the ceiling tiles and found pinholes in a elbow. How the heck did they get there Chief Inspector Cluseau????:vs_worry:

I had to shut down the water and climb 8" feet in the air /stand at the top of the step ladder and patch the pinholes with silfoss. Being the smart Dude I am I think there was a stick welder doing steel welding when they were building the girders for the roof and he hooked his large ground clamp onto the line. The teeth bit into my fitting and eventually we got pinholes. Last place on earth you would expect pinholes and no it was not a recirc line which wore out. So I do my fancy schmancy build up the silfosss around it with a full blown oxy acetylene rig and coat the teeth holes and the rest is history. Gotta love silfoss.:biggrin2:

 

[BayouRunner]

Back in late 80s we had a bad freeze here. Now the weather is nothing like you have but we are totally unprepared for it. It was in the teens for several days in a row. Pipes are exposed in attics and a lot of water mains are exposed on the exterior walls. There were so many broken water pipes everywhere you could not even buy copper fittings or pipes. You would stop at one house to make a repair and four people would be begging you when walked out the door to fix their pipes. We used silfos to repair broken pipes, splits and cut pipes and squeezed them shut so the people would have temporary repairs while they waited for the plumbers to catch up. I had one house that had thirty nine breaks that I fixed with the sticks. We were not in the plumbing business but we did what we could to help out. Most of them were our regular customers. I want to say we had about 70 calls that people could not get anyone to fix their water and it was Christmas Eve to boot. We have not had weather like that since.

 

[yuri]

Yeah we have some old war time homes with crawlspaces and occasionally they freezeup and I would hate to be a plumber going in there or underneath mobile homes where I am. Apparently PEX can withstand one freeze thaw w/o being damaged. And it is quick and easy to use.

We had to put a new 2"galvanized hot water recirc line in for our laundry in the hospital where I worked. Problems with not enough hot in the morning or fast enough.

My Boss a clever farmer dude takes a 2" hole saw and drills into the main 5" copper pipe. We had large lines. Then he shoves in a 2" MIP adaptor and grabs the cutting torch. Fires up a 6" fat azz flame and silfosses the da*mn thing in. Clever Dudes those farmers. Gotta love silfoss.

 

[supers05]

Cutting torch? Sure.... I haven't seen one used like that before. Multple Super sized turbo-torchs sure.

Cheers!

 

[beenthere]

If your worried about brze material getting into the distributor tube. Cut it at teh rub through. Then cut a short piee of either 1/4" or 3/8" tubing and insert 1 end of distributor tube in each end of larger tube. Crimp shut and braze the connect like any other coupling.

 

[justplumducky]

This 27 yr. old R-22 compressor is pulling 8-amps on one leg, 6-amps on the other. Does that jive with the hole in cap tube? Unit still has partial refrigerant charge? Seems unlikely cause pressures would equalize. Unit has been sitting idle for 3-years with the hole in it.

For whatever reason it pulls those amp specs, is it possible that the comp, valves are not working at all? Already warned owner that there could be other potential problems once we get it up & running.

 

[supers05]

You put gauges on it? Pressures? Temps? 8A seems fully loaded for a 3ish ton unit.

Cheers!

 

[yuri]

I would tell him to replace the unit.

Seriously. One fine day shortly after you fix it for $3-500 the crankshaft or a valve will literally break and it WILL seize up. The valves are worn and the compression ratio is down and if lucky it is pumping 80-85% of what it should. Waste of time and $$ IMO.

And yeah I get the sob story of people (poor people) having no money for repairs/new units all the time. Yet they go to the casino and buy cigarettes and eat at Ronnie's etc. Usually they can get the money if they want or find a way.

If you want to "cut" a cap tube you don't. You take a triangle file and score the tube and bend it back and forth and crack it. If you hacksaw it you can get filings inside or crush the diameter smaller.

 

[justplumducky]

You put gauges on it? Pressures? Temps? 8A seems fully loaded for a 3ish ton unit.

Cheers!

I did not. For the time being, still having my partner do that. He gave me a set of guages to start learning with, but I removed the low side guage from the manifold last year and used it on an oil burner for pump pressure. Haven't replaced it yet... was told I'd need a new one. Partner gonna do the cap tube repair Saturday.

Data plate spec is 17.9 RLA for this 3-lbs/2-oz. fully charged unit (if that helps any?), and the usual for similar units I encounter (on a very part-time basis... more like "occasional" actually) are neighborhood of 11 to 12 amps. Not sure however if the usual is as high as 17.9 RLA. This is first one this season. Ambient temps here not out of the low to mid 60's yet, but forecasted for steady 70's soon.

Yuri - did give her that option already. She's hoping for two more years out of it (then a home purchase) but still considering a new one now. First wants to see what happens after cap tube repair.

 

[yuri]

8 amps it is probably compressing air as all the freon leaked out.

 

[justplumducky]

Continuation of post #13:

She knows it's the horse before the cart (cap tube leaking), but someone ( who looked at 3 years ago -- it's been sitting idle for 3-yrs.) obviously made her optimistic, meaning... I've already installed new parts at her request, but only after walking her thru the diagnosis and possible prognosis after cap tube repair. Not one of my typical customers to say the least.

New parts:
Transformer, contactor, 3 run caps (nothing else in the electrical panel), new disconnect , plus thorough cleaning and new wire connections where needed. Connections at compressor only needed cleaning.

 

[Bob Sanders]

I would heat it enough to glob some silfosss around the hole and let it cool then build it up from that and hope it does not fall in. Takes lots of skill and expertise to do that. Also a very small tip on a oxy acetylene welding torch not a turbotorch.

Seems more trouble than it's worth.
I would just replace the whole tube.