A year or two ago, I lost an a/c condenser due to the unrecognized departure of the lower mount isolators, allowing the component to vibrate, resulting in one of the tubes impinging on a structural bracket on the GOP until one fine morning I found a puddle of oil under the right front corner of the vehicle. As it happens, this was refrigerant PAG oil and the refrigerant that it was formerly suspended in was long-since departed.


I got a replacement from a breaker but it turned out to be an aftermarket one. Didn't fit all that well and I had to transfer the brackets from my old one. Performed ok, but it was copper-tube construction and quite a bit heavier. Anyway....yesterday afternoon I went out to do an oil-change and tire rotation and whilst waiting on the oil to drain, I was piddling around the engine bay and stumbled onto significant movement of the compressor discharge line....on closer inspection, I could "wave" the top of the condenser back and forth a couple of inches! Knowing that won't do, I removed the grill and found the upper pins weren't even reaching the holes in the upper panel they are supposed to engage, and only the lower half of the grommets remained and they were down around the bottom of the upper pins. I removed the upper panel and started casting about for a way to extend them upward in a manner to still get the grommets over them.


I found a 5' or 6' long pc of aluminum tube, generally about the same OD as the upper pins. Cut a short section off and held it on top of the nearest upper mounting pin. Looked like it had promise - I took it back over to the vise and drove a tapered punch down into it, then dislodged it, checking that it barely fit over the pin now. Next I cut it off on the narrow end to a more appropriate length, then cut a second pc the same size and drove the punch into it. I took a heat-gun and heated the swaged-end, placed it on the condenser pin and gave it a coupla sharp blows with the hammer. After a bit of heating and pounding, I seemed to have a good tight fit on both sides. Fortunately, I had two new upper mount grommets from the prior incident (sometimes it pays to order more than you need - if you don't lose 'em) so I installed those in the upper panel and then methodically worked it down over the new condenser pin extensions and the radiator pins. Everything good and tight for now - but I'm adding a condenser security check to every oil-change/tire rotation from here on out. I wouldn't be surprised if they let go again - but maybe it'll be warmer by then and I'll add JB Weld to the equation to help retain the extensions.


Sorry, thought about taking pics, but would've had to walk down to the house to get the camera - and I was on a bit of a roll and didn't want to get sidetracked.