Ok just to make sure I understand...you're talking about having an electric fan on the outside of the radiator pushing air through the (I'm no a/c expert so please forgive...the little radiator used for a/c) the a/c condensor I think it's called. And by doing this it helps with cooling at idle...that's sounds like a cool idea "pun intended'. Where exactly did you mount the fan? Now will this help with the squealing issue already or do I need to still replace the clutch? I'm glad to hear you can just replace the clutch as the whole compressor was around $200...cheapest at Advance Auto.
Yup, get the biggest electric fan you can poke in there on the condenser. you'll be able to mount it on one half of the condenser ,there is a bar running down the middle ( if you want to get fancy, you could get one for each side
Chances are the clutch on the compressor is still fine. What happens is over time the fan clutch looses oil and for that and other reasons , doesn't pull air like it was designed to at idle in the heat when it should. When not enough air is passing over the condenser, the the compressed refrigerant , to simplify, doesn't do it's thing, and you wind up with a flooded evaporator. The accumulator is there to catch this excess liquid so that hopefully it can equilize as the mix comes through so that you are returning gasseous refrigerant to the suction side of the compressor with a minimal amount of liquid.
When the air flow across the condenser gets way too low, it sets off a chain of events and the evaporator gets completely flooded and the accumulator gets overwhelmed and the suction line going back to the compressor gets a steady diet of straight liquid, which just like pouring a garden hose into your air intake on your engine, makes the thing hydro lock, hence the clutch slipping and squeeling and belt slipping. if you keep it up, you'll kill the compressor. You can put another clutch on it thatll mask the problem a little longer, but it'll just be a catastrophic compressor failure when it does go, and you'll be having a real blast flushing all the compressor crunchies out.
I almost never replace clutches ( aside from the extremely rare case where it actually IS the clutch and the compressor isn't so long in the tooth to make it not truthfully cost effective) In most cases the clutches outlive the compressors. and in ones where the clutch truely has given out, you can bet the end seal isn't far behind and for the price of a clutch etc, , I can get brand new compressors ( not rebuilt, they're not worth fooling with too many problems and cost more than the new ones most of the time ) for just about any vehicle for between $165-225 so why bother. For the amount of time tied up fooling with them. Why not just get the new compressor and be done with it.
So, in a nutshell, take care of the airflow issue, forget about the clutch, until you can get to that, if it starts squeeling SHUT THE AC OFF! flip the switch back on once you start moving.
It's not hard to rig a fan just attach it to the condenser with the provided push through plastic pins. pull the grill off , remove the bolts that retain the condenser and you will have enough play in the hoses to be able to pull it back farr enough to get your hands behind to work the retainers for the fan pins CAREFULLY work them through the fins and tubes without puncturing anything and secure them, or alternatiely, you can secure the fan to a couple of strips of flat bar and bolt it to the rad support.
Get a bosch relay , rig it to trigger off the ac clutch wire, , run the feed wire through a circuit breaker to the battery and ground everything appropriatly ( I can get you a decent circuit if needed )
If you've had this squeeling bit going on for a good long while, there's a good chance that you've already damaged your compressor. It may keep going for quite a while, but if this has been an ongoing thing, you may be needing a compressor before long. If so, you will need to take the entire system apart and flush all of the componants out thoroughly, to get all of the crunchies out.
If you end up going into the syste,. make sure to pop a variable orifice valve in there. it'll help even more with the low speed temps ( usually about a 12 deg drop in duct temps) and will help prevent evaporator flooding