Thought I might jump in on this thread. I ordered the kit around the same time for my 97 2.5L. I'm all finished now and I thought I'd add a few pointers for anyone about to do this.
I almost bought some junkyard parts to save some money, but my A/C tech friend advised me to suck it up and buy fresh parts unless I was sure the old ones didn't have moisture and corrosion in there.
The directions from Jeepair that you get are the same as the one on-line. They're quite good, with only a few "huh?" spots. Here's some notes that might help. The whole process took a weekend, mostly in getting the dash apart and the heater core out.
1) taking out my radiator involved getting out several rusted clips, but wasn't a big deal. The next few steps (installing the condensor and belts are also pretty simple.
2) partially removing the dash is a pain. Check out videos on "heater core removal" for help. You don't need to remove the steering wheel (as is shown in some videos). The most confusing part is the reference to removing the plenum in fig 7.3 The plenum is the air diverter that is in front of the shifter, that splits the output air into the footwell. The two screws that hold it in are a pain to reach (I used a screwbit and tiny tiny rachet)
Step Eight mentions the six firewall nuts that hold the heater core in. One is actually behind the cowl drain, which took me longer than I'd like to admit to find..
Step fourteen (hooking up the hoses) was where I had the most problems. First off, it's not clear at first how the hose gets routed. An extra picture might have helped, but you can figure it out.
After I got it all assembled, I had it charged professionally. Fired right up and blew ice cold. And then I heard a slight hissing sound. Sure enough, one of the hoses on the evap core was leaking. Turned out that I had torn an o-ring when I twisted the fittings on. Replace those o-rings and reattach.
Second try: refilled the system, and it was doing great for about a few hours, until "pop, hisss". This time the other, larger hose into the evap core blew off. What was wrong? well, the press-on fittings require a bit of feel to know when they're on right. It's possible to get them on part way without getting a solid connection. There's a distinct click that it makes when it engages. You may need to twist or wiggle the connections, but too much torsion can cut the o-ring.
Apparently, these type of press fittings disappeared as they tended to leak over time.
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Third try: cleaned the o-rings and connector, reconnected the hose, charged with Autozone freon this time and I've had cold AC for a week.
worth it? well, the AC is not that strong honestly, but I think it's enough to make long freeway drives to the desert bearable. I'll see how it does this summer.
hope this helps!
