On Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:38:04 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

Within 5 minutes the car vents were blowing nice, ice cold air and I
felt pretty proud of myself. Rechecked the new diode and it's fine,
so hopefully it will keep working.

===

Nice job. It sounds like a classic case of two simultaneous
problems. The first recharge didn't work because the bad diode
wouldn't let the compressor kick in. The compressor has to be
running for a proper recharge in my (limited) experience.