FREE FIX - How to Diagnose and Adjust an A/C Compressor Clutch in Car Truck - Blows Cold Then Warm

okay listen did you hear that click one more time click that's the awesome sound of a well-working air conditioner all right guys this is a little bit off to beaten path for a side hustle uh Channel but we do a little bit more than just side hustle talk here so um I wanted to include this video because I'm really super freaking proud of myself for what I did this weekend with my truck and how I know I saved myself hundreds of dollars um if not probably $1,500 because you know damn well you can never take your vehicle in for an AC issue and them not sell you on every freaking new component possible it's like taking your transmission in you know it's going to cost you 600 bucks no matter what it is same thing when it comes to AC so here's the symptoms that I was having number one um the biggest thing I noticed was my air would be cold at a start you know at an idle I'd start my truck up and the air would you know you got your normal hot air and it turns cold and it would stay cold for a little while then as I would start driving around it would get warm it start blowing warm and then it would get cold again as I would slow down and I started to realize I'm driving along and doing 40 mph and I got like warm air coming through and then I slow down and once I get below like 15 M hour it starts to get cold again and I'm like what in the world my compressor must be going bad and I was like God Almighty that's going to cost me a fortune and I start looking up prices of compressors and it was like man it was like 300 bucks or something like that online for a compressor and then you know I'm sure it's going to come with all the O-rings but you know then you got to change it out and that's time then you need a couple cans of freon to to top your system back up it's was like Christ this shit's going to cost me like $400 for a new compressor if that's the problem but then I got back home and I opened up the hood and the compressor wasn't even on anymore and I'm like wait what's going on here why isn't my compressor engaged and I was like did I run out of freon and so I checked the low pressure switch so let me guys show you something this this is a Ford um 20024 this is the Explorer sport track but this is a very common it's a 4.0 V6 so this a very common motor in a lot of Fords so right here is the accumulator your low pressure charge and this is your low pressure switch right here is your switch and it goes right here it's a thread it threads on with an O-ring so if you suspect your low pressure switch isn't working right um this is what it this is where it is on this model truck all right it's right here and it's probably like that on a lot of Fords it's probably like that on a lot of cars but it's two wires and you can bypass this by putting a jumper you take this black clip off you take this black clip off right here and stick a wire in a wire one wire in and loop it and touch it through then you're going to complete the circuit and that's that will make your compressor click on so that's how you could figure out if it's a low pressure switch is going bad um if it doesn't make your compressor click on then what you can do with the engine running here's your AC compressor right here okay see the belt and see it right here the first one if you tap the clutch with a screwdriver this right here if you tap this right here tap with like a screwdriver or a wooden dowel or something very carefully don't hit the fan don't hit the belts cuz this is spinning and it all of a sudden it engages then you got a really really simple fix and that's going to be the fix that I did and that's going to be the air gap in your clutch plate here's your air compressor here's the belt here's the pulley right here okay this right here is your clutch plate it's got this plate right here hear this listen hear that ticking that's the sound you hear when you engage your air conditioner and it goes click that's this plate making contact bam right there making contact with this pulley under normal circumstances this pulley is spinning when the engine's running this this clutch plate is not spinning this clutch plate is bolted with splines down here to your air conditioner shaft I'm giving you guys a long version because every vehicle is different you like every AC unit is going to be different so I want to give you the long version here so you can listen to what I'm saying and and tailor it to your specific vehicle but it's all going to be generally the same principle all right so once again you got your pulley right here spinning with the the RPMs of the engine then you have your plate right here hear that when you turn your switch on the coil that's behind this pulley is going to energize this pulley to a magnetic field I'm not going to be very technical here and AC guys are going to go no that's not right I'm trying to break it down into Layman's turns this is how I understand it and it worked this pulley now becomes a magnet which pulls this plate in and it makes permanent contact as long as the switch is on and the coil is magnetizing the pulley that pulls this plate in when the plate gets pulled in it now makes contact with this pulley that's spinning at 1,000 RPM and then whatever your engine speed is which then because of this bolt way down here because of this bolt with splines bolting this clutch plate to the shaft of the air compressor you're now pumping the freon moving the freon makes it cold and now you have cold air so as I was driving what happened was the Gap that's between the clutch plate and the pulley was too big well you got moving metal here the pulley is moving this is not moving and every time you engage your air conditioner this clutch plate makes contact to a part that's moving 1,000 RPM or more and so it wears down the metal eventually it becomes a big gap right here now if there's too big of a gap right here then the magnet isn't going to be strong enough to keep this clutch plate engaged against the pulley that's moving at 1,000 or 2,000 or 3,000 RPM whatever you're doing whatever you're driving so now you have the clutch plate slipping because the Gap was too big and when the Gap is too big say it with me the magnet can't hold it so if the magnet can't hold it because the because the Gap is too big then the clutch plate will slip it won't make permanent contact with the pulley if this is slipping then the shaft ain't turning or it ain't turning fast enough to cool so if you're driving along and you get up to 40 m hour and your air starts blowing warm and then as you slow down your air starts blowing cold chances are your clutch plate isn't keeping up with the contact here and that could be because the air gap is too big or there's just too much dirt grimming grease and it's not allowing it to to you know the magnet isn't strong enough cuz the air gap is too big and there's too much dirt grime and grease in here so there's two things you need to do you need to adjust your air gap between the plate and the pulley see that and you need to clean the um surfaces of the pulley and of the clutch plate guys I know you guys give me a lot of that I can sum up a video in 2 minutes but I take 20 I do it because I want to make make sure everybody understands it and guys tailor this to your needs okay this is this is what's going to work for this particular um model air conditioner but I want you guys to get the basics I watched probably 15 videos this weekend to figure out what the hell was going on with my truck and not a single video explained it the way I explained it to you guys I had to kind of figure out oh that's how it works I'm not a technician I didn't go to Automotive school or AC school to figure all this stuff out to know this stuff and I don't have the manuals and I don't have techbooks and I don't have any of that stuff I had to sit on my computer and I had to study it and I had to figure out what makes a the AC clutch engage because when I came home my clutch wasn't even engaging the AC wasn't even engaging once it got hot and so I figured I tapped it because I know my freeon was good I got the gauges I I know my low pressure switch was good so I figured it had to have been something either the compressor's going bad or something's going on and I tap that clutch and sure enough as soon as I touch that clutch it engaged and so right there I knew I needed to research that and I figured out what makes a clutch engage it's the magnetic pull caused by the coil for 90 something dollars at AutoZone Advanced Auto Nappa it's all the same Parts basically for just under 100 bucks you can get a new clutch plate a new pulley that'll come with the new bearing already in it and a new coil um so it's a $100 fix so I'm going to show you guys now exactly what I did to fix my air gap and make my air air conditioner work cold at all times at speed at idle um it's working better than ever and my kids were like Daddy it's freezing in here and I was like yes on my particular truck you need 5/16 wrench or ratchet okay and then you need a way to hold the clutch plate cuz watch watch what happens when I put this on here this 516th bolt head is is right into the shaft of the air compressor so right now I'm turning the air compressor and you see the clutch plates moving so we need to lock the clutch plate down so we can crack the torque on that bolt to get the clutch plate off what I do in this situation is I just take some slip pliers and very carefully put put just enough pressure on the clutch plate and the pulley to sandwich it together you're not going to hurt anything because that connects together anyways when the magnetic pull draws it close so you're not touching things that shouldn't touch that actually slaps together at 1,000 RPM all right take your little wrench hold it break torque there you go all right once you do that you might want to let the car cool off a little bit cuz it gets a little warm go ahead sorry about my hands take the bolt out so there's the bolt okay that's the one little bolt that holds your clutch plate on to get the clutch plate off it takes a little bit of wiggling okay I'm saying all right fellow long guy neighborhood just rolled up so you I got my hand on the clutch plate and I'm slowly working it off see the Gap now see that Gap right there that's too big of a gap okay here's the clutch plate yeah see the contact the metal contact surface here and then you see your pulley right here that's your contact surface of the pulley right here so that pulley and that bearing this clutch plate all come as a kit with the coil for less than 100 bucks you might not need to buy all that though because inside here are spacers let me show you what the spacer looks like hopefully this will focus for you this is a little washer basically you get a little shim kit this little shim kit fits right inside here okay so when you take this clutch plate off you have to look for those little shim kits you might have to tap this on concrete ground or something carefully to get them shim kits out there could be three 4 2 or one or zero of these little spacers in there if there's zero and your Gap is too big and I'll show you how to measure your Gap in a second then you need a new clutch and pulley kit if there's two in there you can take one out if there's three in there take one out if there's one in there I took the one out and I'm running with no shims so with all the shims out I have a very close tolerance but let me put this shim back in and I'll show you what I was working with originally okay sorry for that Interruption fellow long guy came from the neighborhood and was talking for a few minutes so what I did is I put my clutch plate back together with that spacer back in the hole that that I showed you guys okay so now look at this Gap see that see how much movement there is now and then when the clutch when the magnet engages and magnetizes this pulley and it pulls the metal this clutch in that's the that's that noise you hear look at this Gap now look how big this Gap is see when you have a big old Gap like that it's not drawing it tight enough it's not holding it strong enough and the tolerances for that Gap the specs are with a feeler gauge 014 to 0.33 so I took a 025 and a 0.8 and when you add up 0.8 and 025 that's 033 you want you want this to be able to slide in just barely and you want this to really not be able to slide in if the big thickness here can slide in then the gap's too big so let's try it oops slides in slides in with ease too much ease so the gap's too big see that so when the Gap is too big like I said it's not going to hold it also you get dirt and grime and grease in there and it's not a strong enough magnet also when the metal gets hot and everything expands if this disengages then what happens is it won't re-engage unless you tap it like that when you tap it like that and it engages then you know you got an issue with engagement issues and that's going to be your your air gap right there could there be other issues going on could it be a weak coil could yes but this is something for you to look for this is something that's all I'm trying to say this is something for you to look for so if you find your Gap to be this big or bigger okay and and I don't know um every vehicle you're going to have to like look for your compressor for your vehicle that's what I did I looked up the compressor found found it at Napa I did a search of that part number specs I said what are the what's the air gap um specs for part number such and such on Google and boom this is what I came up with these numbers here 014 033 once I stuck this 033 in there and I could see that it was way too big I knew right away that was going to be my issue how do you fix it like I showed you to take it off in the first place my truck is a 5/16 ratchet with these slip Jo joints now I only have this hand tight so I should be able to just hand tight it off so you take this 516 you pull this off there's that bolt again work the clutch plate off it just slides off slides off the shaft of the air compressor remember there's going to be spacers in there don't don't lose those spacers Once you pull it off make sure you angle the dangle so the hole see that almost lost it one almost came out with the magnet there it is see it hanging out like that see that right there hanging there's that spacer that's the shot the SP splines you see how the splines here see how that splin well that goes on on the shaft way down here these splines when this thing goes bang and bangs into the pulley and makes contact and the magnet holds it all of a sudden this blind connection right here this blind shaft starts to turn and that's pumping the free on if this is slipping because it's greasy dirty grimy or the Gap is too big and it's not holding it tight that Shaft won't spin the speed so again if you're cruising along and the air starts blowing warm and as you slow down your air starts getting cold again check the air gap when you have it apart spray brake clean all over this spray brake clean all over your pulley rinse it off with water so it doesn't you know you don't leave brake clean on your rubber belt and then put it back together I took the one I took the one spacer out and now I'm going to put it back on you remember how big that Gap was just line up the the spline and now look how small the Gap is no way is that big old Gap going to fit no way so we know we're not too big the question is are we too small and if we are too small then what's going to happen is if it's too small then the contact surface of the clutch plate here and the contact surface of the pulley is going to be slipping on each other and you're going to hear you're going to hear noise like this hear that noise you're going to hear noise um when you engage the air conditioner that noise will go away but when you disengage it and this tries to pull away and you don't have the metal to metal contact so strong then you're going to hear the metal it'll sound like symbols going around if that's the case you're definitely too close not too close for Perman but you're too close that it's rubbing when I put the one spacer in or take the one spacer out it is close it's close as hell but it's not making the metal to metal contact now we know that the big one won't fit so the Gap isn't too big and then here's the 014 without bolting it down you should bolt it down but you slip this in here if it will see and it just barely fits it's it's a tight fit when I bolt it it down it's it doesn't move much but I checked it but that's how you do it okay that's how you check your air gap if you don't have a feeler gauge you're looking for about a sheet of paper okay if you can get a sheet of paper in there you're good if if if you can get four sheets of paper in there you probably need to adjust your air gap and you do that by taking the spacers out so now I tighten this down I'll carefully hold this as to not damage anything and I'll go ahead and tighten this down I don't know what the torque specs are you can look that up if if you'd like I just go guten tight which is German torque guten tight there you go it's good and tight that is how you adjust your air gap right there on your air compressor and that's really close but it's not too close that it's making noise and uh it's been working fantastic since I fixed it and I drove around with the boys all day yesterday we went driving all over the place and the AC stayed freezing beautiful beautiful so that is how you adjust the air gap of your clutch plate and that is if your air conditioner is slipping getting warm when you start driving um or if it just won't engage and you've already done all your troubleshooting I tell you what the easiest thing you could do is take a wood dowel any type of like a piece of wood very carefully please but with the vehicle running and your AC on and it on cold go ahead and just reach in there and tap that and if it engages probably it's your air gap all right or you just got some dirt and grime so take off that that um clutch plate like I just showed you take that off clean it with some brake clean rinse it with some water make sure that you got the spacers that you had if you got to take one out take one out put it back together tighten it all up and see if that fixes your problem I really hope it does I'm not a tech I'm not certified I'm not even trained it's just this is what I found I'm just sharing it with you guys please take it with a grain of salt do your own research but I hope I save you some money or at least give you some knowledge to Inner workings of this part of your air conditioner it's probably very common and AC techs probably laugh all the way to the bank when that's the issue I can only imagine what the charge is nothing against you AC guys man I know you got to make a living but hey we need to save our livings too so sorry about that guys um feel free to leave a comment below please be respectful I'm acknowledging that I'm not an AC Tech guy I'm not a pre freaking Pro this is just what worked for me and that's what this channel is all about you do your due diligence do your own homework do your own research but at least have some knowledge if you take your vehicle into the shop say yeah look this is what it's doing and I think it's the air gap and make them tell you why it's not your air gap make them prove it or just get out there and do it yourself I just showed you how easy it is simple very simple all right guys so this is Dan I hope I helped you out and uh let me know leave comment below this is what we came [Music]

Channel: Dan's Vlog

Views: 942,610

Keywords: ac compressor, air conditioning compressor, ac compressor clutch, airconditioning \\u0026 refrigeration basics, ac compressor replacement, toyota ac compressor replacement, How to remove and replace an AC Compressor, ac compressor cluctch replacement, how to fix my cars air conditioner, how to fix an air conditioner, ac doesnt blow cold, car wont blow cold air, ford ac compressor, honda ac compressor, ac compressor clutch fix, Test, Compressor Coil, compressor stator, recharge

Id: CMF5dqhr2fE

Length: 23min 19sec (1399 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 20 2017