Thanks for the tip on the lube. That's got to help.
It came with a 'T', but one side off the top is the wrong sex to fit onto the service port.
It should have been male and female.
What would be useful is a real short hose, instead of these 6 footers.
I did a little experimenting and I think this might work..
Using two hoses with the new gauge in the middle,
between the pump and the AC. One cut-off valve at the service port
and one at the gauge.
Pump>]----------Xg-[<gauge>]-----------Xs-[<Service port
Process:
Start with cut-offs turned off.
1. Pump on.
2. Open both (g&s)cut-offs.
3. Wait for pressure to get low. (record value).
4. Close both cut-offs.
5. Pump off.
6. Wait a few minutes. Vapor out-gassing.?.
7. Pump on.
8. Open g cut-off.
9. When pressure is back to recorded value in step #3, open s cut-off.
10. Loop back to step #3.
I hope to get a little lower pressure on each loop.
If the pressure inside the lineset isn't holding low after a bunch of loops,
it's going to be very noticeable on step #9. There will be a
big change on the gauge.
When the pump is at it's limit (no more vacuum to be had) and I'm happy the lineset is holding the vacuum,
that might be a good time to call in the allen wrench expert..
Getting it down to 50 or 100 microns would be nice, but I think
anything around 500 is going to do the job just fine.
The Mr. Slim manual says 1000 microns (1 Torr) is their target.
That should be easy to beat..