Leak at A/C dryer seals

[chromguy]

I am adding A/C from my 88 shelby Z to my 87 Sundance. I am getting close but noticed a large leak on other sides of the dryer. Notice the larger gap between the plates near the bottom of the picture. I have tighten the nuts up quite snug but both sides leak near the bottom of the picture


here is a picture of the seals I am using, yes I used new ones

It appears the seal is too hard to be properly compressed but this is my first AC attempt so only guessing at this point. When I took apart the 88 AC system the seals were similar, but the old seal was leak free.
Suggestions are welcome as this info is non-existent in the FSM

[tryingbe]

Put couple of vise grip on both side of the flange, then tighten the nut.

[chromguy]

Thanks tryingbe,
I will give it a try.

[135sohc]

Ensure the hoses are able to fully seat flat and that the little hose tube pass through is not bottoming out first. Between aftermarket hoses that generally suck compared to genuine OEM and virtually all filter driers coming from china now the Q/C standards and dimensions seem to suffer a lack of standard consistency. The crush gasket design is a dumb one (old school flares never leaked…) that you just have to crank down on those nuts to get the gasket to smash down. I have used a bit of anaerobic before and make absolutely sure the flange surfaces on the hoses are flat and not full of rust pitting.

[wheming]

I was using a gasket/thread sealant called Nylog (blue for HFC refrigerants) and it worked fine on all orings and gaskets except i have a leaking dryer too.
I ordered a new dryer and will try again, keeping in mind the advice given here about flange surface pitting, the hose tube stub length, and the tip about clamping prior to tightening nut.

[chromguy]

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I will give it another go this morning.

[black86glhs]

I have had good luck for years putting straight mineral oil on them. Both those style and O-rings. That is for sealing though and not aligning the flanges.

[ajakeski]

They always fit like crap. I squeeze them with a channel lock while I tighten it up. It's a crap design.
These were meant to seal up R12. R134a is a smaller molecule, so it can leak out of spots R12 did not.

[Aries_Turbo]

im going to use some steel flat stock and make a clamp for the opposite side so there are two bolts holding each fitting down when i do mine.

[acannell]

I replaced those same seals years ago myself, and then immediately had the system recharged professionally

After a few weeks, started seeing the little oily dust coating forming around them..thought the system was leaking..

5 years later..AC still works..its not the artic circle but its not like it took a nose dive either...not sure what to make of it..it must have leaked if there is oil right??

[wheming]

That isn't the best arrangement certainly. But that oily film could also be the installation lube just showing itself.
It may be a leak if it looks like it is any worse or comes back after wiping clean. Of course, you could always do a soap bubble test.

I like Brian's idea. I'll have to se if i have anything suitable to do something similar.

[HSKR]

I had same problem on my daytona, and now my Spirit. Fixed it both times by take a little piece of the old seal and putting it under the outside edge closest to the bolt so when you clamped down it acted like a shim to put more pressure on the tube side and the gap was even. Never leaked from dryer after that.

[ajakeski]

I had same problem on my daytona, and now my Spirit. Fixed it both times by take a little piece of the old seal and putting it under the outside edge closest to the bolt so when you clamped down it acted like a shim to put more pressure on the tube side and the gap was even. Never leaked from dryer after that.

Good idea. I'm going to do that when I reassemble the AC on the GLH.

[chromguy]

My AC is now working well so I though I would update. The air dryer leak was fixed by using both a shim and red locktight.

Now the surprise, I used Nylog on the green orings on the high pressure of the compressor. and it was destroyed after a few days.


I replaced the orings with ones from the same lot without Nylog and we are OK for now 3 weeks later. My fingers are crossed
Thank you for your suggestions