Finally got tired of not having ac in my 96, 4.0L, Classic. With all the heat and humidity here in PA, I was miserable. So ordered a condenser after having used a leak detector (green slime put through low pressure line) and finding a hole in the right upper corner of my condenser, in the fins. Picked up the condenser from Pepboys ($49) this morning and went to a friends garage and disassembled the jeep's front (grill, header panel) Then ran into a couple of problems - The A/C lines to the condenser were rusted tight, would not move without bending/kinking the lines. So broke out the PB Blaster which did not work. After some wire brushing and liberal soaking with Kroil, was able to get apart and install the new condenser, after adding a little oil. Put jeep back together, pulled a vacuum and put in 3 cans of Walmart R134a freon ($8.49 ea) Other than a little belt squeal initially (loosened fan belt a little, solved problem) its blowing 58 degrees inside and is working fine.

Questions I have:
1) Before freeing lines, briefly entertained replacing AC lines from condenser to accumulator. We were told by a local Jeep Dealer and Morris 4X4 that the bottom line is virtually impossible to get at all right now, something about a nationwide shortage? Is this true?

2) Any advantages/disadvantages to not replacing the accumulator? I purchased one from Pepboys ($41) but did not use, thinking I would replace lines first then tackle the accumulator.

 

Got our new compressor, accumulator and liquid line/orifice tube at Oreilly Auto parts and the rubber hose/manifold assembly at Autozone this past June no problems. Everything I read said the accumulator and orifice tube were filters and should be replaced when ever a/c work is done. Also, from what I read, R134a systems are very sensitive to the amount of oil in the system. Too much oil, cooling performance is affected, too little and the compressors days are numbered. We flushed the evap and condenser, precisely measured the PAG oil (1/2 in the accumulator and 1/2 in the compressor). End result is 34F at the center dash vents.