Thunderbird 96, V8, 4.6 AC Compressor

1996 Lincoln Town Car, Mark VIII, Mercury G/M & Cougar, Ford C/V, Thunderbird & Mustang all use that compressor.

Try at:

to find a good recycled part in your area.

Rob

Thanks Rob.

Check ebay, I found a brand new one for my ranger and paid $75

Hey Mike, Did your compressor disintegrate internally? Or did the clutch bearing go bad?

Just a heads up. If it failed internally (the outer flange won't turn or it binds) you will need to flush the entire system, replace the accumulator and orifice (and possibly the condenser), evacuate the system and recharge or the new compressor WILL fail when you replace it. When a compressor fails internally it fills the entire "High" side with debris and clogs it. There's absolutely no "cheap" way around an internal compressor failure, ~$400 DIY. Anything else is money wasted and lots of cussing. AC repair is an all or nothing thing. Spend a bunch now, or spend lots more later (or give up and not have AC). Before you buy a used compressor, tell us some details. I don't want to see you lose before you even start. Tom

Oh, if the clutch failed, replace it with a new clutch kit(~$80). You won't have to discharge the system or anything else drastic. Give us some details. Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the heads up.

About three weeks ago the belt snapped and I brought it in. I was told, and I forget the specifics, that either the pully on the A/C had a bad bearing or that compressor was shot. They, a local garage, told me that it would cost $600 bucks to fix at the cheapest and may not fix the a/c at all. Now personally I don't care about the ac. In fact I don't think I have ever even used it. So they told me not worry about it and ignore the noise.

Flash forward to friday, and my car will not turn over, I think it's a bad battery, becuase I left the lights on and the battery was about 6 years old. So I go and get a new battery, and get my friend to come over and help me put it in.

Well. low and behold, the engine turns over withOUT the new battery. But immediately starts squeaking and shaking, and bam! the new belt snaps. Now the engine sounds great. No noises, no shakes, but no water pump and no power steering. :)

So we check out all the pullies and the pully on the compressor is completely frozen. Can't turn it at all. We measure the diameter of the a/c pully and buy a shorter belt, but because of it's placement you can't bypass the pully, or else you skip, I think, but could be wrong, the idling pully. So now we are back to square one. I don't care about A/C, I just want my car to run. It has 150k miles, and I need to get another 15-20 out of it before I can buy another car. So I think are plan at this point was to just replace the entire compressor, but I don't know anything about cars, so I could be totally wrong.

Any help would be great. Thanks again.

-Michael coyne

If you have ever used the defroster, you have used the a/c. If it was producing a mechanical noise, that was a sign that some failure was imminant. When the belt on the a/c goes, everything else will also go.

You a/c compressor may not have been a problem when you were originally put on notice that there was a problem that was noisy. At that time, you may have been able to get it repaired by replacing the compressor clutch assembly. If it has frozen as is indicated by your description, it has probably damaged the nose of the compressor which will require a new compressor to repair.

So is there anyway to get the pully spin, and not have a/c?

thanks.

Mike

The only way you will know is to remove the a/c clutch assembly. If the nose of the compressor is undamaged which is not likely based on your description, you can install a new clutch assembly and leave the wire harness disconnected. That will allow the belt to run freely. The remaining problem is that your OBD2 emissions system may not be happy without the a/c system and, produce fault codes that prevent you from getting an emissions inspection if you live in an area that requires this.