NH575E
Senior Member
Someday I may investigate why mine doesnt hold a charge. When I purchased it, the seller told me it didnt work. I charged it, it worked beautifully. Not long afterwords it went flat, and has been for years now.
You are lucky to have a shop that can make up the hoses for you. Hard to find a shop that will do that in my area
My whole system is generic except the cab controls are factory. I found a new set of those on eBay. I bought a factory style expansion valve also. The compressor was missing and the mount looks like something somebody welded together in their back yard. Bruce at Alma Tractor found me a NOS mount for $800. I used what was on the tractor and shimmed it to get it as straight as I could. I used a generic Sanyo compressor. I broke the mounting ear off the first one by not having the funky mount shimmed good enough. Buying a second compressor off the auction site was still way cheaper than buying anything from NH. It has an idler off a Mustang. I pulled the evaporator and heater box out from under the seat and cleaned it all up. It has a thermostat from and old Ford vehicle of some type. Get the picture?
When I first renovated the AC I had leaks I couldn't find. My old expensive leak detector came back from a loan not working. I bought one of the cheap ones off eBay and it seems to work way better than my "professional" unit ever did.
Turned out the long hoses running to the expansion valve were seeping through the sides. I ended up replacing ALL the hoses. I re-routed the long hoses to be a shorter path and easier to install when I had them made. Anything to do at the expansion valve is a certified pain in the ass. Larger hands may not fit in that area at all. My skinny hands got severely beat up working on it. It remained leak free until yesterday.
I expect this leak to be the result of a careless operator. I was backing up through vegetation I hadn't pushed down. The driveshaft had weeds wrapped all around it. There were signs of something being dragged along the ground but I didn't find it when I followed the trench and it isn't hanging under the tractor. My driveshaft is all shiny and polished now.
As far as I can see nothing is pulled loose or cut. I hope it didn't crack a fitting at the expansion valve.
In hindsight I should have jumped out as soon as I heard the hissing sound to see where it was coming from but I didn't.