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I have searched and searched and haven’t found the answers I’m looking for. I have a 2001 ss that the previous owner had a new compressor and dryer installed in 2013. When I bought the car in 2017 it was working fine. The car sat unused over the winter and the next spring the ac was warm. I did buy an ac pro to charge it, but it showed green on the low side so I didn’t use it. The compressor is turning off and on like it suppose to so I think the pressure is correct. The lines in the engine compartment do not get cold except from the pressure switch to the bulk head. The small line that looks like it hold the orafice screen. I am borrowing a full gauge setup to check both the high and low pressures today. I am hoping it has just lost some charge. The small line to the left of the switch is what gets cold and sweats.
The small line to the left of the switch is what gets cold and sweats.
I'm no A/C expert either, but I'm pretty sure that small line with the switch on it is the high pressure line, which I don't think should be getting cold until after the liquid refrigerant goes through an expansion valve near the evaporator coil located inside the ventilation system. The larger line above it appears to be the suction side, which is what usually gets cold since it is carrying the gaseous refrigerant that has already expanded / evaporated and absorbed heat from the interior. Maybe that is a clue to what is going on?
More research and I discovered that the orifice tube is located just to the left of that switch. That causes the restriction in the high side which causes the refrigerant to become cold when entering the evaporator. So the line becoming cold there makes sense, so the pressures on the high and low side should show if it’s low refrigerant. If I see lower values on high and low side that means it’s low. Sounds like the recommendation is to evacuate, pull vacuum and recharge. I hope that is all it is.
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Looking for air conditioning expertise 
