The a/c quit working on my 2000 R/T. The guy who tried to recharge it says that the cartridge with the orifice in it is blown out. Does that part exist and is it replaceable?

Thanks!

Supposedly a/c works by forcing the refrigerant through an orifice. It is what creates the high side from the low side and makes the sytem work. I guess on older cars it was replacable, but he could not find it on my truck.

I am at a total loss when it comes to a/c. To me it might as well be voodoo.

I agree, some sort of mixed metaphore.
There is an orifice. It can be clogged. Never heard of a blown out one, but maybe. It can be replaced.

Never heard of a cartridge with an orifice in it. There might be a cartridge with desicant in it, and that can be replaced as well.
I would take it to a different mechanic, or ask what the high low readings were.

Rockauto.com lists them. http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1361810,parttype,6936
JWH

The "The fixed orfice is located inside the metal portion of the condensor piping manifold on the passenger side at the front end of the rear half of the two piece liquid line (low side). (the part up front closer to the radiator). I replaced one about a year ago believe its on the "low pressure" side. Sometimes you can get the item to shake out, but most of the time you need use a special tool. you access it by seperating the two halfs of the liquid line and its inside. Not a job for a person who is not familiar with ac systems and what they can do to you or what you can do them.

Did your truck just quit cooling or did the blower fail, a little more detail would help.

regards,

doc

Truck was wrecked a couple years ago. Body shop replaced the condensor and radiator. System worked fine until this spring. It was low on refrigerant but the guy who was trying to charge it could not get it to make any pressure on the high side.

What was the low side pressure? Did he weight in the charge? Is the compressor pumping? If the restrictor was some how broke open, the high side pressure would be low and the low side would be higher than normal. JWH

Generally its not recommended to exceed 45-55 psi on the low side to charge an a/c system and never "dump" liquid into the system while its running. From what your describing, sounds like the orfice is messed up. Sure would help to know what the charge is on the system not running to see how high its charged and whether or not it equalizes when not running. On the Dakota RT overcharging or a "sudden" spike in pressure while charging can cause problems with the orfice. On a 95 degree day, using a set of good R134 gages you should have about 45 on the low side and between 225 and 250 on the high side. Right now, my 01 RT std cab is putting out 38 degree air at the center outlet on a 95 degree day. (you don't want to know what I went thru to get there) But this truck was also wrecked and I replaced the condensor, radiator, fan and all of the front end sheetmetal. Biggest problem was that an aftermarket ac condensor I bought was a piece of crap. Got smart and sprang for the Mopar OEM unit and my problems cleared up after a really good evacuation of the system. Good luck and let us know what happens.

doc

Thanks for all the replies. I will post what we find.

I ordered a tube and O-ring kit today from Rock Auto. We'll see what we find when we take it apart next weekend.