Used my A/C today and it was working very well. System stopped working and began blowing hot air. I pulled over looked under the hood and discovered one of the wires on the compressor became cut. I drove it home cleaned up the wire, put a new crimp on and the A/C worked again.

Problem solved? Not so fast. While I was admiring my work the plate that the wires are connected to started to spin and ripped both wires out. Horrified at what I just saw I shut the car and turned the plate to the correct position. Re-connected both wires and the A/C worked again.

Relived I thought to myself that was weird. Than, it happened again. Now the two wires are just spinning round and round.

Has my A/C clutch gone bad? If it's not that, what could it be? Am I looking at a new compressor?

 

The clutch coil and clutch and probably the pulley bearing are all going to need to be replaced.

 

:lurk

 

To be perfectly clear; theres no way I would replace the compressor if it was working fine. I would just replace the parts listed above.

 

Ok, so now that I know what I am looking at I can give a better description. I repositioned the coil and re-wired it. I am able to turn the clutch by hand. When the car is running it's not making any strange noises. No burning smell. The clutch engages fine. AC get's cold. Each time the clutch engages I can see the coil moving. After the A/C cycles a few times the coil breaks free and starts to spin around and the AC stops working.

Why does this happen? Is the coil the only bad piece? Before I take it apart I would like to know what's holding it together. Is it just the pressure of the clutch+ pulley and bearing? Is it something that can be tighten down or should I just replace the coil?

 

At the very bare minimum I don't see how you get out of this without replacing the clutch coil.

The clutch coil is a big coil of wire that when voltage is applied creates a electromagnetic field that draws the clutch plate in, and turns the compressor. The clutch coil is covered in insulation. As time goes by the insulation can degrade. Eventually (depending on conditions) the coil insulation can begin to rub on the inside of the compressor pulley. Obviously this can make the coil assembly rotate in the direction of the pulley. This can ruin the wiring connector and connections if the entire coil assembly starts to rotate.

This is the condition I believe you were trying to describe.

The pulley bearing (if it is worn out) can allow the clutch assembly to rotate in a direction that is not perpendicular to the centerline of the compressor shaft. This (and this alone) can cause the inside of the clutch pulley to rub on the outside of the clutch coil. Obviously, this can have the very same effect as the degraded coil insulation, and cause the exact same problem, and this is why I vote you replace them all.

I'm sure some other folks will chime in here with their 2 cents, but I wouldn't replace the compressor because I wouldn't want to evac and recharge the system. All the crap I talked about above can be replaced without even connecting a gage to the system.

Ill tell you this though. Very, very, few people have an ac compressor clutch removal tool at their disposal, so maybe you should replace the compressor. Not because you need too, but because you don't have an alternative. Good luck however you decide to handle this unpleasant situation.

 

- (OP) not sure what year you have, but from your avatar, it looks like an 88 or 89. I can tell you from my experience with my 85 - if you have to replace the clutch coil (and it sounds like you do), the clutch (maybe), clutch bearing, (as Amotoxracer says, most people don't have the proper tools, so) IF you have to buy some tooling, you are nearing the cost of a service replacement compressor. I opted for a (new GM) service replacement. I was retrofitting my 85 to R134a, so in my case, it was advantageous to go new @ $175. just my 2-cents (FWIW) -

 

Year of car is certainly going to likely dictate the repair procedure and the parts purchase. '87 and earlier Harrison R4, '88+ 'Denso 10PA20. They're very different. Both can be done "on the car" I'm quite sure.

 

You can change the a/c clutch in car on the early ones. I did mine last year, IIRC there some type of snap ring or comparable that held the coil in place (maybe someone could confirm) but it's been a while since I was in there. If there's supposed to be one and it's missing, I'd suspect the coil could try to spin in the right situation.
You can also borrow most of the tools from places like Autozone if you want to attempt the teardown and repair yourself.

 

I have a full set of clutch removal tools, except for the seal removal tool, which broke and which you do not need. I'd be glad to lend it free for postage.

 

If you have the Harrison R4 Compressor, this is what your up against.. The Coil is a press fit to the Compressor Hub Assembly, and apparently yours came loose,, this may or may not require replacement..

You don't have to discharge the system in order to repair this problem, but you will need a couple relatively cheap tools in order to perform this task.

 

Thanks for the video. Guess I need to pick up some more tools