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Its getting hot! Time to get the air conditioning working!

T

Throttle

NAXJA Forum User
Location
A tree fort
So lately my 98s air conditioning has been acting up. If the truck has been sitting for a while, I can fire it up and drive around with the airconditioning working fine. After about 10-15 minutes of driving the air coming out of the vents turns warm and doesn't cool anymore.... Does my system just need recharging?? I've heard that the low pressure switches usually fail, could that be it too? Because it sounds like my fan and a/c clutch is still engaging, but just no cold air after about 15 mins of driving
 
I'm not sure exactly how everything works, but it sounds to me like the heater core is warming the air (valve / switch not working?). Would make sense since at first air is cold (engine is cold), then warms up (as engine coolant warms).
 
Well say I park then 5 mins later come back and fire it up and drive away, then the ac works, but dies after 10-15. So its not dependant on the engine temp.
 
Hmmm now that I have the laptop in the shop, it seems like the A/C clutch is not engaging... What controls the A/C pump? When I disconnect the switch ontop of the condensor the electric fan stops working....
 
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It doesn't click at all. I've tried jumping the connector on the lower pressure switch and it only kicks in the electric fan. No compressor tho...
 
YEah I think I found it, and I tested it and while running its providing 13.4v to the compressor. Once I plugged the connector back in, the clutch engaged... So I'm wondering if maybe i just had a bad connection between the two connectors...
Has anyone done a write up on how to charge the air conditioning system if its completely empty? I thought you have to create a vacume inside the system before recharging it.
 
I had a similar problem with my 99, and it turned out to be a rusted compressor clutch. I managed to limber it up, and it's worked since. What happened, basically, was that it would engage when cold, and then gradually slip more and more as it heated up until it let go. It took some time to troubleshoot because after resting, it would always work fine, and only stopped working when on the road. I got mine woken up again, but you have to be careful not to whack it too hard or you'll bend things.
 
It's best to pull a vacuum on the system first. This gets the air and moisture out. Harbor Freight has a cheap pump that works pretty good. I also got their gages. Then when you vacuum it our, you can check how long it holds the vacuum. If it's like mine was and you can see the needle drop after you turn the pump off, you know you have a sizable leak and are wasting time putting "freon" into the air. I have recharged a couple of vehicles successfully without that stuff by just putting a can or two into the system with the Walmart kit.
 
Matthew Currie said:
I had a similar problem with my 99, and it turned out to be a rusted compressor clutch. I managed to limber it up, and it's worked since. What happened, basically, was that it would engage when cold, and then gradually slip more and more as it heated up until it let go. It took some time to troubleshoot because after resting, it would always work fine, and only stopped working when on the road. I got mine woken up again, but you have to be careful not to whack it too hard or you'll bend things.
Click to expand...

This sounds pretty similar to what I'm getting. I'm going to try and take apart the clutch tomorrow and see if its all rusted up or not. Before doing that I'm going to take it out and get it to the point where the clutch is not engaging anymore then check the volts coming out of the connector. If there isn't any voltage then I'm going to assume that its either low on 'r134a' and have to take it into a shop to get it charged. As I'm only going to be doing my vehicle then I don't see it as really worth picking up a vacume pump for it. I can only get R12 up here, and I don't really want to be emptying the system then refilling it with R12 as not all of the 134a may not come out...

Has anyone done a write up on how to re and re the clutch assembly? Do I need a puller to get the pulley off and all that jazz? Or can I remove the pully/clutch at the same time?
 
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Well the clutch definately looks like its pretty worn out. I can't find anywhere that replaces JUST the clutch, everywhere I call they want to sell me a new compressor unit. There were two washers spacing out the clutch disc, so I removed one, and it looks like that solved the problem. I also lightly lubricated the splines on the front of the compressor unit. I couldn't get an accurate measurement between the clutch and the compressor flywheel, but ever since I removed one washer (probably 1/16" thick) it seemed to have fixed it.
 
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