banshee365
Veteran Member
I'm about to start disassembling to replace the evaporator core in my BRM. I had what was left of the refrigerant evacuated from the car prior to the job of course. I drove the car around a day or two and to my garage where it sits now. I never thought about detrimental affects of driving the car without the system charged as in most vehicles the clutch is disengaged so the belt is just turning a pulley and a bearing. Of course these cars don't have a clutch so the compressor is running all the time.
I was reading through the manual last night in preparation for the job and came across several notes. They mention that the charge is needed to keep the compressor lubricated. The manual states to run the engine less than 10 minutes and less than 2,000 rpm if the system is empty. There is also a note that there is residual oil in the compressor to protect it while the system is empty. I ran engine over 2,000 and for an hour or two empty. Hopefully there wasn't any damage done. I want to say that typically service manuals are very conservative and that you can somewhat deviate from what they say on most things and you'll be fine, but I don't know.
I suppose there is only one way to find out.
I was reading through the manual last night in preparation for the job and came across several notes. They mention that the charge is needed to keep the compressor lubricated. The manual states to run the engine less than 10 minutes and less than 2,000 rpm if the system is empty. There is also a note that there is residual oil in the compressor to protect it while the system is empty. I ran engine over 2,000 and for an hour or two empty. Hopefully there wasn't any damage done. I want to say that typically service manuals are very conservative and that you can somewhat deviate from what they say on most things and you'll be fine, but I don't know.
I suppose there is only one way to find out.