I picked up a pretty clean low mileage 2001 suburban as a good daily beater. Both the high and low side fittings are leaking on the air conditioner. Does anyone make an upgraded valve that uses an actual schrader valve instead of the ball and disk setup that GM used. If so, please point me in the right direction. Anything else that i should buy while replacing these valves? I hate messing with A/C. I usually just top them off with a can and sell them when they start to leak. This time someone topped off theirs and sold it to me LOL.

 

LoL to the last sentence 🤣

I don't know much about AC systems myself either. But I think if you are going to mess the valve, might as well replace the orifice filter(?) I think that's what it's called. They get really dirty with time. You'll need to pull vacuum also to suck out all the old gunk, I'm pretty sure. Do you own a vacuum pump?

 

High Side with schrader vs rubber ball
Dorman 800-955

Not sure if this is for the high side and extra parts for the low side.
MRY 26775

 

I just did this a few months ago on my 2006, not sure if the part # is applicable to your 2001 but it probably is - verify first. I chose Four Seasons # 26775 and IIRC it's a regular schrader valve in there, just one is a little larger than the other so it's not the same size as a typical tire valve. About $9 from Rock, I needed mine quicker so I got it off amazon for $14 and it showed up the next day. One you replace the whole port, the other you just swap the core. Many regular tire valve core removal tools don't have the reach you need, so I ended up running down to Oreillys to pick up a cheapo A/C core tool (looked it up - Xtra Seal # 15-3174, $6) that worked fine, you can see it sitting there with the black/orange handle. The other trick is the port you completely replace has an oddball socket size/shape (intentional) so you may need to get creative. Can't remember what I used but it wasn't a big deal. BTW recommend wiping a little Nylog Blue on the o-rings to help be sure they seal, and the threads on the replacement port as well. Easy job.



Richard

 

They are Octagonal Sockets Low Side is close to 1/2 the High Side is closer to 5/8. Possibly a 12 point will fit?

Kent-Moore J-39500-275 contains the 2 Hexagonal Sockets.
J-41256 For the Low side
J-39037 For the High Side

 

Master Cool and Four Seasons offer Schrader Valve Sockets too.

MasterCool 98134 Low Side Socket
MasterCool 98234 High Side Socket

Four Season 59997 Low Side Socket
Four Season 59998 High Side Socket

You can also find offshore no name brands too on various sites if you search "High & Low Side Octagon Socket for R134a AC Service Ports"

 

Aluminum fitting in a thin aluminum line; not a lot of torque on it. I think I just used an adjustable wrench. Can't recall - I was annoyed I didn't realize ahead of time I'd need a special socket, and was running out of time to work on it, so I just found something that would work. Having already made a run to the parts house for the valve core tool was enough.

Richard

 

you guys are awesome. Now i need to find a youtube tutorial on how to work my ac gauges. It's been a long *** time since i've needed to break them out. Not even sure where the vacuum is at this point.

 

I probably hadn't done any A/C work since before R134a became standard. Took me a couple false starts and minor screw-ups but I got it together pretty quick. I re-built the A/C in my '93 C3500 and used all '94 spec parts so it was R134a-ready without using conversion fittings, plus everything was in crummy condition with a busted compressor, so it got the works. Did that first, then went on to deal with the slightly leaky but still working A/C on the '06.

Richard