The best-laid plans...

[truckster]

It's a beautiful Saturday here in Utah. I was going to get up early and work on putting together my Vortec engine for my Blazer. I've got almost all the parts now, and all I needed was some time on a nice day...

Last night my daughter called me. "Dad, my air conditioning isn't working. Would you take a look at it?" She has a 2005 Nissan Altima. I replaced the compressor (it was shot), but the accumulator that came with it didn't fit - it had one mounting bolt instead of two. So off I go to NAPA, O'Reilly, Autozone... all the parts houses have exactly the same accumulator. So I decided I would drill and tap the second mounting hole, which wasn't hard, but then the fittings for the lines to the condenser were the wrong size, so they won't seal. I call the Nissan dealer - yeah, they have the accumulator, but it only comes as a unit with the condenser, which runs north of $500. So I put the original back on.

Time to draw a vacuum, but it's not going past about 5 in/hg. I start chasing leaks, and it's got a leak where the pressure line leaves the condenser. OK, I already replaced the O-rings, but I'll replace them again. Nope, still leaks, so I go to NAPA and get some thicker O-rings. Still leaks. That's when I find a hairline crack in the pressure line. I tried to braze it, but I guess I got a little overzealous and melted a bit too much aluminum. Still no seal. So now I've got a line on order from Nissan, but my Blazer engine is still sitting untouched.

So now it's after 5:00 and I just got done putting the Nissan back together, put my tools away, and told my Blazer I'd catch it next time. It's the end of the school term and I have a bunch of grading to do. Oh, well, no one ever said being a dad was easy...