So So close, but no cigar.

Wanted to see if my theory sounds reasonable to anyone who knows more about
this than me.

So I finally got this old Behr system put together today.  I flushed the
system, sprayed compressed air through to get as much of the flush out or
evaporated, put it on a vacuum and let it sit for 3+ hours until I was
convinced there were no leaks, and finally began charging the system.

Because of some rust and a previous owners trigger happy spray painting I
was advised by a friend to leave some of the o-rings be, but I did replace
them at the compressor and dryer.

Our disappointing results were as follows:

Too much pressure on the high side, a little over 200 while running.

Too little pressure on the low side. Pegged at zero while running.  One
part that I didn't replace, (kicking myself now because several people
mentioned that I should, including some on this list), was the expansion
valve.

So the theory is that if the expansion valve was plugged or gunked up, the
compressor would eventually suck all of the refrigerant out of the low side
and pump it into the high side and with no way to flow through the system
and back to the low side I ended up with too much pressure on one side and
a vacuum on the other.

I'm thinking that a clogged expansion valve be the most likely culprit.

I'm new to this, but does that sound about right?

--
m.