A/C clutch replacement, 740

I'm a little confused by your post. I've seen AC clutches fail in two ways. In one, the outer pulley spins by the drive belt, but the clutch will not engage and drive the compressor. Another failure I saw, the clutch seized up and was spinning the compressor even though it was not supposed to be. In that case, the compressor was dry, seized up, and burned up the belt.

If the refrigerant is already gone, I would lean towards replacing the whole compressor rather than just the clutch, it's worth checking, but the cost difference may not be all that great. Either way, I recommend you replace the shaft seal on the compressor while you have the clutch out.

Be sure to replace the filter/dryer before having the system charged. Replace the pressostat on that as well. Honestly, I would go through and replace all the seals, inspect the hoses, and flush out the system with solvent. You never know how well the conversion job was done by someone else, and any of the old oil left in the system will break down in the presence of R134 and make a real mess of things.

Me too, car is not here now so I can't look at it. I can't figure out how the pulley can be frozen and the compressor not be.

Point taken, I am checking on rebuilt now. Clutch is $170 +/- at FCP.

Points taken.

I have most of the documentaion on this car, I need to go through and see who did the conversion and when. Most likely dealer though.

I wouldn't normally bother but car is really nice and the A/C working would be good.

cheers

jimB

-------------------------------------------- JimB

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There's also the option of a junkyard compressor, depending on the weather in your region, they may not be too heavily used.

I fix the AC on any car I drive, it's nice to have, and it's really not all that hard to do. If nothing else, it makes the defrost work so much better in the winter.