Do it Yourself and Know it's Done Right...WRONG !!

Ok we have all done it. We get the estimate from the plumber or contractor or mechanic and right away we think… hey, I can do this myself and save a ton of money. Yup we have all done it and we have all been wrong. Let’s take my Sonoma Pick-up truck compressor for instance. At the beginning of the summer, I took it to an AC shop and got an estimate on repairs. The nice surgeon..err…technician said no problem he could fix it, it only needed a compressor. "How much will that cost me?" I ask. Only $675 he tells me. $675? I’m thinking when I was a baby I was delivered at the hospital in 1958 for less than that and I came with a new blankie and a cap. Well thank you sir but no thank you sir. I can do this myself and save a fortune.
Well first things first, I need a compressor. Hey the truck is old and I can find a good used compressor at a salvage yard much cheaper. Yeah that’s the ticket, a used compressor. I start my journey and who could have guessed that particular compressor was a rare one (meaning they only had one or two and were going to milk some sucker..ME). I drove yard to yard, east to west, north to south and no luck. I finally found a small yard at the edge of the universe that just happened to have a nice shiny almost new compressor. No problem, I eagerly shelled out $150 bucks and was off. Lets see, what else do I need, oh yeah Freon gauges. Ok off to my trusty Harbor Freight store, shell out another $50 bucks and now I have gauges. Next I need a new dryer knowing that the old one will be shot after all the times I recharged the system, another $100 bucks. What else, oh yeah Freon, I make run to the local AutoZone and pick up 4 cans of Freon, yeah that should do it, oh and maybe an oil charge. Ok another $70 bucks and I haven’t even popped the hood yet. I take my trophies like a monkey with a fresh stalk of bananas and drag them back to my cave. I pop the hood and there she sits… with a nasty looking belt around the clutch. Hmmm… how does that come off, I know pry it..and I pried it…and I pried it and snap it came off, another $25 for a new belt. I take out my socket set and remove the old compressor, wow, who would have guessed cracking that line would let out so much oil. Oh well probably didn’t need it anyway. I take the old compressor off and install the new one. Great I am ready to charge it with Freon but first I have to vacuum the line down, I hook up my pump (another $135 bucks) and vacuum it down to two pounds negative.
Great I am ready for the new Freon and some cold air. I hook up the gauges and put on a can of Freon and wal lah.. I lose a whole can of Freon out of the valve because I didn’t notice the spare parts package that held the o ring seal for the gauges. I put in the seals (attached to that stupid pouch with the directions inside) and now I’m ready and a charging we will go. I put one can, two cans, three cans of Freon in and still no high pressure however I am about to ring the needle around to the back side with low side pressure. Ok, something is wrong, I know I will take it to an AC shop and have them check it out, they will politely tell me what is wrong and I can return to my cave and correct the error of my ways.
My AC technician is a genius, within 4 hours of waiting there for him to attend my sick AC he has a diagnosis. “Mr. Richardson, you have a bad compressor but we can fix it”. Ok, now I have to tell Mr. wonderful I will think about it and get back to him and make my way back to my man cave, oh and he gigged me for $75 bucks for the diagnosis. I make a call and the salvage yard has another. I don’t have a way to recover my Freon or oil charge so… another $70 bucks down the drain. I drive wearily down to the junk yard (no longer care to call it salvage) and pick up another not as pretty compressor. I go through my same routine and once again the exact same results. Now I am getting pretty non Christian feeling if you know what I mean. I give a friend a call (because I ran out of 50/50s) and he tells me to take it to a friend of his for a looksy. I do just that and this old salt comes out, takes a look, feels the lines and says “You change the in line filter sport?” Excuse me? There is an in line filter? Yep sure enough right there next to the dryer is a very expensive in line filter that stopped the whole system up and caused me to have warm tropical air, how much was this very important device you ask? Try $1.98. Ok, change the filter, recharged the system, checked all the lines and ta daaa… ICE COLD AIR. Ad the $30 worth of gas for the world tour and I now have $705.98 in my repair using a used compressor instead of paying a shop $675 for a brand new compressor and installation. Yeah I saved some money here (The Three Stooges could have made a mint on this gig). You know this is one of those cases where you have to say, it’s not the destination that satisfies, it’s the journey to the arrival…yeah right.. I don’t believe that either. Have a great day.