Siezed AC compressor

[TWeatherford]

Well something kinda frustrating happened today. I went about 5 miles from home to drop a movie off, and when I hopped back in the truck she wouldn't turn over very well, and slowed down like I had a dead battery. So I called my Dad, to bring his truck out and give me a jump. But he has battery problems right now it turns out, so I wasn't able to get it started jumping off his truck for some reason. So we pull started mine, which I hated to do. Sprayed some power steering fluid, and coughed and hiccuped but came to life, with only a little smoke coming out from under the hood figured it might be the power steering fluid hitting hot engine parts, and since I was close to home I headed out. Well made it about 2 miles and lost power steering, breaks, and started getting warm. Not wanting to overheat I shut her down, popped the hood, found a broken serpentine belt (brand new btw ), well low and behold a frozen AC compressor.

The AC system is shot on this truck. Hoses cut and disconnected, so a little while ago under some advice here on the forum I unplugged it. The compressor thrown a decent amount of dust out on the battery and all around it, so I'm figuring its bearings wore out and she siezed up good and tight on me. I don't exactly know how these things work, so I'm prolly gonna take the broken one apart to find out. In the meantime, I want to get the truck back on the road. I could care less about AC at this point, I can't afford it now and won't be able to for a while. Looks like I need to get a factory pulley that Ford put on trucks that didn't have AC, or a used compressor on the cheap and hope she doesn't sieze up too. I've searched around a bit and can't find a source for the pulley I need... Any advice? Sure hope I haven't now killed my starter trying to start against a seized compressor, or done major damage to the power steering using it with no help from the engine.

 

[hesutton]

That's what I was worried about when I saw your photos in your prior post. All that dust was concerning for dieing A/C compressor bearings. I've never had a sept. belt set up so I'm not sure. But, I would think that you could get a "non-A/C" belt (shorter) for your truck.

Someone with more experience with serpt. belt IDI's will be along with the answer.

Heath

 

[TWeatherford]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I did some more digging and found this at autozone http://www.autozone.com/selectedZip...initialNtt,/initialNo,/shopping/selectZip.htm Supposedly bolts in and takes the compressors place in the serpentine belt setup, only $40 I guess that works. But there's a 6 and an 8 groove available... my truck has 6 grooves on the crankshaft, fan, and alternator pulleys, and 7 on both the power steering pump and ac compressor. So I guess I'll get the 6 groove one, will that make much difference? I wouldn't think it would. This is almost certainly not the original engine, and the power steering pump was replaced recently so maybe they just bolted in the right one for the engine thats supposed to be there and not the right one for the on that is. At least this happened 5 miles from home instead of a few days ago 180 miles from home on the interstate with the horse in tow, in the rain, at night.

 

[Willie Two]

It's probably just the $2.00 clutch bearing, but on the rotary compressor changing it is a pain. The kit you speak of sounds easier overall.

 

[TWeatherford]

Well I'm up for anything, almost. I do like to save money, however I do want something that will fix it for good, not maybe sort of fix it if I do it just right.

 

[1dieselman]

Can you easily turn the 8mm bolt in the center of the compressor clutch. If you can, compressor is okay, just get a clutch kit, takes less than 15 minutes to change it. If you can't turn the bolt your stuck getting a compressor or compressor delete pulley.

 

[icanfixall]

Take a good look at the compresser on your truck. Measure the diameter of the 6 groove pulley. Then find a wrecking yard that lets you pick and pull the parts. Most any Ford big or small truck will have a compresser that will fit your truck. Even the Ford cars with a serpentine belt 6 groove setup will work. Just make sure the pulley is the same size. Otherwise the original belt wont fit. A wrecking yard compresser will be cheaper than a $40.00 replacement pulley...

 

[EMD_DRIVER]

just get a clutch kit, takes less than 15 minutes to change it.

Dealer-only part?

 

[Ironman03R]

I had this same problem a few months ago. A clutch is almost as much as a reman compressor!
No one around here had a listing for an AC delete pulley, probibly because the pulley is a odd size, I used one from a 460 but the pulley was too big, I had to get the next size bigger belt which was too big so then I had to put spacers under the compressor to keep tension on the belt. I have another one that might work I just havent had time to swap it in yet.
If you do get a jumckyard compressor, make sure the pulley is the same size!

 

[1dieselman]

I got my last one from Napa. Was about $30. The last reman compressor I got was almost $200

 

[Willie Two]

I was thinking just replace the bearing on the clutch pulley

 

[sassyrel]

It's probably just the $2.00 clutch bearing, but on the rotary compressor changing it is a pain. The kit you speak of sounds easier overall.

if the front retaining bolt for the clutch aint stuck--which ive never seen in 40 yrs of air work--this is the easiest to change the bearing on---bearing is more than 2 clams also---