Sorry, for a non maverick/comet related question. But I have an 83 mustang..... grrr.. The other day the A/C's clutch locked up and absolutly fried the serpentine belt. It was a rather dramatic, and smokey trip down the freeway... anyway.. My main consern is Changing out the a/c compressor. Is this something thats dangerous, or would result in a enviornmental disaster. I went to the local bone yard and found a bunch of cars with compressors, complete with clutches and was thinking about ripping one off there and throwing it on my mustang. But thought that perhaps this might result in leaking some terrible fumes.. anyway, Thanks for the help Cam
A/c Replacement Cam just go to the junk yard and get the a/c compresser and clutch assembly and change it out with your old one . You will need to have the system recharged . Make sure there is no metal in the lines . If so than you will need to change more parts ( lines condensor dryer and so on ) hode this helps jay
Wellll,,,,,, if your a/c worked before,,,you have freon that needs to be evacuated. The proper way is to have a shop suck it out recovering it. If it did not work an you only want to replace comp. so belt will run, again, the proper way is to have machine remove freon, then you may replace it with your stuff. If you want to have a/c working, after replacing the compressor, have a vacuum put on system to check for leaks and clean debris. Then install the freon and oil. May want to check auto parts store an see how much new comp. is. Lot of work an service money to use a used compressor that may be 5 minutes away from your old one. Good Luck
Was it just the clutch that locked up or did the compressor lock up? If it was just the clutch and the compressor diddnt get to hot change the clutch assembly and be done with it. If the compressor got to hot you will need to change it out also due to the fact that the front seal will probably leak. But it has to get pretty hot to do that. I would not suggest using junk yard parts as far as the compressor and drier are concerned. You might be getting someone elses problems when doing so. If the compressor locked up you have a long road ahead of you to get all of the dibris out of the lines. If it is a radial compressor, FX10 or 15 the piston rings in those are plastic. When they get hot they tend to break the rings and the parts go all through the system. You will need to get the system evacuated and then the work starts. You ned to flush out all the components to get out all of the metal and plastic out. They make A/C flush to do that. You will have to reverse flush the condenser and the evaporator to get all the stuff out of them. If it has not already been done you will have to cut out the oriface tube in the high side line and replace it with a new one. You can get the kit from any parts store. It comes with a oriface tube and a piece of replacement line to graft into the piece you cut out. (the oricace tube is crimped into the stock line) The kit has all the instructions to do this. Make shure you get all of the dibris out of the system or you will be doing this procedure again very shortly. Then replace the A/C compressor and the reciever drier, add the correct amount and type of oil (most modern A/C machines can charge oil with the freon. This would be a good time to convert to R134A if you wish. Make shure that you pull a vacume of at least -28 in lbs for no less than 30 min on the system after you perform all the flush and replacement of parts. Longer if the humitity is high. You need to get all of the air out of the system. If there is any O2 left in the system it will have a chemical reaction with the R12 and create an acid that will distroy your system from the inside out. Even if you decide to get a salvage A/C compressor at least put a new reciever drier in the mix, you will not regret this decision. one thing that I do when replacing a compressor is put the proper oil in the compressor ( make shure you mesure the amount to subtract from the charge amount) and turn it over by hand 10 or 12 times to get it to pump the oil through the compressor and then I stand it on the clutch end for about 30 min to make shure that the front barring and seal get oil on them before I install the compressor. I hope for your sake that all that is bad is the clutch. If so, just replace it and be done with it.
