Take 2 ballpein hammers and tap the nut on each side of each other. I have a 2' adjustable wrench that i use to turn the nut. In a rare case I have used a dremel tool to cut the nut . Applying a little heat helps too.
I’m done a Ton of these on rtus and walk ins. I’ve had 2 that I had to apply heat to 2 of them before loosening. Also give it a small turn to tighten it then try and loosen it. Have a good backer and you’ll be fine
If you can get a new rotolock fitting that size then yes replace it. Clean up copper with wire brush and emery cloth before installing new fitting (and maybe use a sealer). TY4D ride along John. 🙏 your dad.
Same here. Is foolish to mess around with unit that old. The customer has the money to buy a new system., why spend extra money to attempt to repair it?
Looks like I have the same problem. My system was manufactured in 08 and has r22 in it. Would the r22 change the repair possibility? I definitely don't have the money for a new system. Was out of town for 5 days, came back and the outside condenser frozen, line frozen, inside unit frozen. Shut it down, unplugged inside unit and defrosting for 17 hours now, towels everywhere trying to soak up the melting ice. Will attempt to gain access to evaporator coil to clean in attempt to track down the cause for the freezing line. I maintenance routinely with outside unit cage removal cleaning annually and filter replacement minimally every 3 months and are pretty clean when I do replace them. Any suggestions is appreciated. Bought this property two years ago so prior maintenance is unknown.
Maybe an option is to put another compressor and repipe? Please do a follow up best of luck.I seen a special pipe Wrench for those rotor locks, one of my coworkers has one I will ask him we’re he got it from
Would your approach to fixing this issue be the same if the refrigerant was r22? I have the same outside unit, was out of town for a few days, when I came back the entire line was frozen all the way to the inside unit. Defrosting for 17 hours now and it's still dripping water. Got towels catching the water everything unplugged. The system was manufactured in 08 and has r22 in it. Every year I remove the cage on the outside and thoroughly clean the coils, I change the inside filters every 3 months and are usually pretty clean. I maintenance routinely. Can anyone give advice on which way I should go. I don't have the money for an entire new system.
+1 for cutting the suction line so it can spin, and then pipe wrench, if it wont move might need some heat. If it still won't move you can take a small grinding disk and cut slowly through the nut until you can turn it, it may cut into the threads a little bit but that shouldn't be a problem.
Finish wrench will give you a better grip like the knipex ones, adjustable will loosen and cause rolling. Deff spray before hand with anti seize and let sit already 10 minutes
Always soaked them down in kroil if there was a chance I was changing them or the compressor. Let them soak for however long I was gone, then a 24” pipe wrench.
I replaced a Rotor lock compressor on a RTU unit last summer . It was not fun but I saved my co worker 12k on a new unit or 3 k on parts that a few companies claimed were bad .
Heat the nut up till nearly red hot, then chisel or punch on the edge of the flats of the nut to shock it loose. If that doesn't work grind through the nut until you just get to the threads and again go at it with the chisel. I wouldn't use a cheater pipe etc as the connection to the compressor may not be very strong. Once you have it removed, use a file of hacksaw blade and wire brush to clean the threads up on the compressor connection, plug the hole so nothing gets in the compressor while cleaning the threads. If its really messed up then you can just braze a piece of copper directly to the compressor with some high silver content rods and flux and do away with the rotalock. I'd take the compressor off to do this and lie it on its side with the suction connection pointing up, really degrease it well.
Use 45% silver on the rotolock to copper. High content silver will solder brass to steel to copper. Surfaces must be very clean. Use flux. May favorite is Stay Silv.
Personally I’d gas and go. As old as the system is something totally unrelated to the Rotolock repair may fail next and the customer will have been worse off throwing good money after bad. I won’t find fault with you trying to replace the Rotolock. Just personal preference, John. Good luck.
Break it free carefully with the pipe wrench. Then switch to a Cresent wrench and work it back and forth so the nut breaks free from the pipe and doesn't candy cane the copper. That should give you a good chance .
I would have done an entire leak check on the whole system. Just to make shure the other company wasn't just saying that was the issue in hopes the owner would buy a new one. If it's been losing a pound of coolant a year and the other company couldn't find the leak at the compressor, it just seems fishy to me! Let's not forget you didn't get any bubbles at the connection, and your leak checker really didn't go off that much. If it was me, I'd go back and leak check the whole system before proceeding. Something about this one doesn't pass the sniff test. Good luck!
