I just hooked my first line from the dryer to condensor. My fear is i tighted the o-ring bolts to tight. I got it finger tight and the tighted with wrench per instructions but it just felt wrong. Before i move on and mount the condensor unit to the care and potentially run other o-rings, can you tighten these too much? Newbie on this project. Any tips appreciated.
Thanks.
68camrs

What do you mean by "it just felt wrong"? You dont have to bear down when tightening the fittings, just make sure they are good and tight.

Did you use leak lock on the threads? You can get that off the shelf at your local parts store. Make sure its for refrigerant. Coat about the first 1/8 inch of the thread, tighten the fittings. Make sure you do a good leak test, if you have no visible (soap bubbles) or audible (hissing from a fitting) signs, then pull a good vacuum and then let that set. If you loose your vacumm then you know you gotta go looking for a leak.

It just felt like i was compressing the o-rings too much, just not sure how much pressure the can take. It was only about 1/2 turn with wrench from finger tight. This is a vintage air ac gen IV sure fit. They did not specify anything about the thread sealing in the instructions. Just the supplied oil on the o ring before installation.

Generally, an O-ring connection will have a mechanical stop between the two hard fittings and the O-ring will get crushed by 20% to seal.

The tightening of the joint should NOT depend upon the O-ring. Usually, 1/6 turn from a hard facing is all needed to tighten.

After assembling, leak test with 150-175 PSI of dry nitrogen. Then purge the dry nitrogen as the gas will absorb some of the contaminants. Then evacuate, charge with dry nitrogen, purge, evac and finally charge with freon of your choice, only after adding, or have done already, compressor oil to the suction side.

I thing you're asking about how tight is TOO tight when tightening the fittings on the DRIER.
If you have to ask, Its TOO Tight.

It's 11 to 13 ft/lbs for the #6 fittings
It's 15 to 20 ft/lbs for the #8 fittings
It's 21 to 27 ft/lbs for the #10 fittings
It's 23 t0 30 ft/lbs for the #12 fittings

Its just a Bit past snug. The O-Ring seals the joint, Not the crushing of the metal to metal. The O-ring isn't a gasket.

I see. That makes sense. So the hard tightening i was feeling was probably the mech stop and this was properly sealing the o-ring without crushing it entirely and ruining it.

Now based on hh post, i am not sure. Does anyone know if the vintage air has the mech stop?

Thank you.

I think i have it. I removed to inspect or reinstall new ones. They were fine and very lubricated. Next tightening was finger tight and just a slight snug with wrench. Thanks to all who quickly responded to this issue. This was confirmed by the vintage air folks as thier tubes do not have the mech stops that prevents crushing of the o-ring.