So I pulled the AC bits out of the subaru, but I still have the lines at the firewall. I would like to plug them with some real nice plugs. Ones that actually thread in and seal up, and look nice while doing it. Does anyone know if these exist somewhere? I'm imagining aluminum threaded female plugs with a flat faced end. Or even a large acorn nut.
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July 19, 2011 10:19 a.m. Taiden HalfDork
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July 19, 2011 11:07 a.m. jimbob_racing Dork
What about those plastic plugs that Eastwood sells for media blasting? They'd work and look good.
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July 19, 2011 12:28 p.m. 93gsxturbo HalfDork
Summit and Jegs both sell anodized aluminum NPT plugs.
Keep in mind that drilling and tapping NPT threads into the A/C system will completely ruin whatever you drill and tap into should you ever decide to put A/C back in the car.
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July 19, 2011 12:32 p.m. Cone_Junky HalfDork
Working as an auto tech I end up with a lot of plastic and rubber caps from sealed new parts. I used a couple of plastic threaded caps with rubber seals that came from a new compressor to seal up my evaporator.
But I guess buying new parts just for the plastic caps doesn't make much sense...
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July 19, 2011 1:11 p.m. triumph5 Dork
Does not Grainger or McMaster-Carr sell caps? They sell, it seems, every widget you can't find anywhere else.
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July 19, 2011 1:17 p.m. EvanB SuperDork
I covered mine with blue painters tape but it doesn't exactly look great.
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July 19, 2011 1:22 p.m. Taiden HalfDork
I want to leave the threads intact for future use.
Cone_Junky, do you have any idea where I could find some of those? I'd rather not pay if I can manage.
Can a lathe cut the proper threads for this job? Anyone have a lathe?
Also, what threads are cut on AC parts? Just flared fitting threads? AN threads?
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July 19, 2011 1:43 p.m. Cone_Junky HalfDork
In reply to Taiden: My post doesn't help much because they are just random caps that I have laying around (literally have a shoe box full of them), and they came from random parts/manufacturers.
Being that every make and model uses different size and type of fittings, it would be tough know what size yours are.
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July 19, 2011 2:50 p.m. Taiden HalfDork
I wish I had one of those thread finder doodads. The one that's packed like a set of feeler gauges that just has cross-sections of every thread known to mankind. I haven't run into any good ones though.
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July 19, 2011 3:32 p.m. ppddppdd Reader
I cut the tubes to pinch them shut rather than unscrewing them, then painted them with lots of black plasti dip to keep from scraping my arms on them while I'm working in there. Not exactly beautiful, but the black makes them hard to see.
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July 19, 2011 4:33 p.m. SupraWes Dork
Find some sort of rubber cap that fits and add some RTV. Anything that will keep the air out. If the inside of the tubes oxidize it will all be ruined.
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July 19, 2011 7:14 p.m. Taiden HalfDork
SupraWes wrote:
Find some sort of rubber cap that fits and add some RTV. Anything that will keep the air out. If the inside of the tubes oxidize it will all be ruined.
Yes, the main reason why I want to seal it up with actual fitting caps is so I don't damage the internals with water.
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July 19, 2011 7:16 p.m. Taiden HalfDork
Also I found a place that sells AN female caps that look like the screw tops on spirits bottles. I just have no idea how to identify the threads. Last time I tried identifying a strange thread, I failed miserably.
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July 19, 2011 7:32 p.m. shadetree30 Reader
Taiden wrote:
So I pulled the AC bits out of the subaru, but I still have the lines at the firewall. I would like to plug them with some real nice plugs.
Why don't you just get some AC plugs?
Sorry.
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July 19, 2011 8:42 p.m. novaderrik Dork
go to a junkyard and get the ends of the lines that you removed from your car.. use the nuts on the lines to make a plug.
