Thanks to a message from BobT to an earlier thread the problem has now been solved. I had the ac go on the blink almost a year ago but at times could fool the system into working. Locally the problem was diagnosed as being a bad compressor so I had that replaced. That was not the problem. Local people were not able to track down the problem but Bob T did when he suggested that it might be a bad magnetic relay. I bought the part and popped it in and that has fixed the problem. I bought the part from
Good luck to anyone with a similar issue. Greg