How do you tell if that unit is bad. The unit that the belt rides on. Mine was knocking at one point but is not now. I'm wondering if its bad. I look at it with the ac on and with it off, i see no difference, should there be something i should see? Thanks

 

Do you still have cold air? If you do, it ain't bad yet

 

got no cold air , lol

 

If there is still pressure in the lines (check at the low side), Go ahead and get yourself a Compressor.

 

Where is the low side? Shouldn;t u see that clutch spinning? Or it should look different when the ac is on right?

 

yea, you should see the clutch spinning. you should also hear it clicking off and on. make sure both plugs are still plugged in too.

 

If it's bad, it should be leaking....right?

You should see lots of moist dirt build-up at/near the compressor's clutch/pulley.

 

I cleaned it about a month ago so it is still clean, i do not see the clutch spinning at all and don;t here anything? Still bad? Thanks guys

 

Like FbodTrek said, check the lowside. The lowside is the bigger hose/pipe going into the compressor. You should be able to get a gauge that screws into the lowside plug.

 

IIRC, according to a way old out of date manual I have (this is older than our thirdgens folks) the low side fill port is the valve on the top of the silver accumulator thing, next to the heater control valve and box. The pressure is checked here as well as filling. You need to purchase an A/C pressure gauge, which is marked in "HI" and "LO" graduations. The LO one is used here...

 

Or you just shove a pen cap in there to push the valve in, ou'll know if it has freon....

 

If you want to do the above, don't use a pen CAP, use a bad pen. You definitely don't want to freeze your fingers off when the freon hits them...

 

Also, I don't think the compressor will work if you don't have freon (because of a leak somewhere).

Try adding freon that comes w/ dye (sp?).

 

yeh, had that experience last year, i took the car to a shop to have them look at the A/C unit cause it wasn't working anymore. Guy probed around the engine, checking current at different relays, saw that i was getting power just about everywhere, minus the compressor relay, he hit it w/ a hammer, and boom, compressor kicked on, then right back off...it was short cylcling, which it'll do if there's not enough freon to keep it running, i took it and did the 134A conversion, and i had good working A/C...then the engine started leaking oil, shop had to pull the motor, and the next thing i know, the A/C isn't working anymore...didn't work the rest of the summer, winter, or not....and will no longer take a charge...guess i'm stuck going to a shop to have it fixed up now.