Trying to get my 1944 FEA to cool

Hi, and welcome to the forum. That is a nice, early FEA machine you have there. It even has the famous blue control knob still in place LOL! That's worth its weight in gold, apparently!

As for the non-cooling problem, there is likely a very small refrigerant leak in the system which has allowed most of the refrigerant to leak out. There will still be oil in the lines which may result in a percolating noise while it is running, as vapor flows around and bubbles through the oil.

You're very fortunate that the fan still works! These have a very low-horsepower fan, in the interest of being quiet. For that reason, it's very easy for the fan motor to become stalled by dried oil. There is an oil fill tube located on the side of the fan motor where you can add about 30 or 40 drops of light oil to the motor. For these low powered motors, something like Zoom-Spout turbine oil or other light electric motor oil would be ideal. I would probably not go with the usual 20W oil since that is going to slow down the motor due to its higher viscosity. Adding oil was maintenance GE required for the fan and it will keep it going a lot longer.

Location of oil port:



The porcelain coated evaporator is something you don't see as often as the stainless ones. Sometimes, the porcelain will get chipped off the underlying steel, leading to rust. This can eventually allow for rusting-out of the evaporator. Look carefully for any oily residue on the evaporator or any other lines areas. That would likely indicate where a leak has occurred. 

There seem to be quite a few FEA machines which have mystery leaks. Not sure if quality was not what it had been before the war, or if these we have seen, have just had some unlucky treatment in the past. 

Let us know what you see as far as oily places on the lines.  If you see that, it will probably need to be repaired by soldering, and then will require evacuation and recharging to get it cooling again. 

Sincerely,
David

Glad to help. To do this job properly, you will need to have refrigerant gauges, can tap, a vacuum pump, soldering torch and good skills for it.  The torch; you'll need to replace the filter-drier since the system has likely not been serviced ever since it was built. Also you will probably want to solder in a conventional 1/4" flare schrader service port so that you will not have to locate a service kit to connect to the existing ports.

The FEA compressor was used for several years and it has proven its self reliable with alternative refrigerants other than R12 so no need to pay overblown prices for that from eBay sellers. 

If you do decide to to it yourself, all the info is out there to learn the basics, but the learning curve can be steep. Steep but not impossible. If you do go this route, people here will help for sure, but you will still need to be confident in your hands-on skills.