I'm not sure about something here... when you say "freon" are using it
generically for "automotive refrigerant" or do you mean R-12? You may know
this already but you don't want to put R-134a in with R-12 for various good
reasons.

If it had R-134a and you want to re-charge it, as someone else pointed out
you need to fix the leak first; this link is to the R-134a retrofit
technical bulletin and gives the various capacities:

http://www.gti16v.com/tb879503.htm

Cya,
Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
titantic01@AOL.COM
Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2010 2:35 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Adding freon

 Hello gang,

Last year about the fist of April, I spent over $400.00 to get the A/C in my
'87 vanagon going. a hose was replaced and some minor things were done.

Now, a year later, I turned on the a/C and it was so low of freon that the
safety switch would not even let the compressor run. I went and bought 2
cans of 134 a and a cheap gauge dispensing set up to put it in with.

My question is since the compressor won't energized will I need to some how
jump the compressor clutch to make it run while filling the thing up or will
it start on it's own once I have put in enough freon?

The other thing I want to know is is 2 cans enough or does that system take
a 3rd can?

Thanks for your words of wisdom on this.

Happy Easter everyone.

Chris