York YT Liquid Line Leak

I am currently servicing a YTK3C4E3-CTH that has a major refrigerant leak at the liquid line to evaporaor gasket. This is the only flange on that line (the other end is welded to the condenser) and I'm concerned that I will not be able to seperate the flanges enough to properly clean the surfaces, which are most likely very rusted. Can anyone offer suggestions on the best way to repair it while I have the 1,400 lbs of R-123 out of the machine? I am tempted to cut and weld in a new flange on the opposite side of the elbow from the existing flange just so I can get it apart.

hi A-C, you need to get a qualified A-C guy in streight away, you dont seem to be very experianced and to say you might cut and weld the pipe is courting insanity,

Hello Sedgy.
I am a very experienced chiller tech, but the majority of my work is with Trane chillers. While I do service York machines, I have never had to fix a leak quite like this one. While welding on a new flanged surface seems a bit extreme, it can...and has been done before on other chillers where alignment has been a problem. This may not be my first choice of repairs, but if I cannot find a better solution from someone with York experience, I may have no other choice. The chiller is leaking so bad that the purge has a hard time keeping up!

Solid weld and get rid of the flange, they are always potential leaks due to expansion and contraction, add vibration into the mix.

Hello

In the short term you may be able to use an epoxy as I did this successfully
on TRANE R11 units back in the 80s
for leaks on motor barrels to volutes on the LCV types.

I also used to use a shelac type varnish as it is a thin solution and may be sucked into the joint and set.

Regards
AWW

Yes...thank you. I did just that during the summer, running cold chilled water from another chiller thru the evaporator to lower the refrigerant pressure as much as possible, then coated the surfaces several times with a product called Glyptal. While it slowed the leak rate, the chiller now needs to be fixed properly. Another question I have is if I do decide to weld up the line, where...if any...is the orifice plate located. I certainly don't want to overheat it and cause it to warp. Any ideas on it's location?

Hello A/C doc
es
I know TRANE LCVs used a flat orifice plate which had various holes and this was set into the flanges.

Will look at manuals when poss in office re YT

Regards
AWW