Hey all, first time posting on the forum. It's been a huge help while working on my '93 240 wagon, so thank you all!

Most recently I've been working on the air conditioning system, which blew cool but not cold. I'm a residential HVAC mechanic by trade so I had no qualms about diving in. I thought I would start by replacing the orifice and receiver/drier, flush the system, and see where that got me.

When I went to unscrew the fitting to access the orifice tube on the right side of the engine bay, the aluminum expansion line going to the evaporator cracked. I thought, that sucks but okay, I'll make a new line. It looks like a #8 hard line so I am ordering a universal replacement line to bend into place.

Now my questions: when installing the orifice into the lines, I know to follow the arrow that the small end goes into the #8 expansion line. However, while test fitting this new orifice into a part of the old line from the condenser, I see two issues. First, the larger filtered end only fits partly into the smaller liquid line fitting. Is this as far as it should be going in / is this the correct orientation?. And a second, related question, how far should I expect the small end to slide into the #8 hard line? It seems like the whole orifice assembly would slide freely in that bigger line, as in there's no "stop" for the thing to catch on. How does it not just get pushed down the line by liquid from the condenser? Did the original line that I cracked have such a "stop?"

I hope these questions are clear, and thank you for your help!

Best,
Drew


(Yes I will order another expansion valve now that I've gotten this one all dirty!)

 

It appears I put this in the wrong section! How embarrassing. Is it possible to delete this thread, or move it to the 240 section?

Thank you/my bad!