AC clutch squeal (1 Viewer)

[MrMacdugal]

Last night my mechanic and I diagnosed my air conditioning problems in the LX450(see photos below)
It was clear that without a belt around the compressor I wasn’t gonna get any cold air. Even a 2 year old could see that!
So I did like any good cruiser owner would do and stole the ac machine from work. The one we use on quarter million dollar vehicles and hooked it up to my truck’s compressor without knowing what kind of contamination may be inside.
Did a recovery and got some refrigerant. LED me to believe the system is free of leaks. I put two pounds in and it held pressures.
I slapped a belt on it, tightened the belt tensioner leaving a little give. Then I fired up the truck. The compressor sounded a little rough having not spun for who knows how long. It eventually quieted down some after 30 seconds and I crossed my fingers and hit the ac button. To my surprise the rpm’s ticked up and the ac clutch engaged. BAM! Cold air. Let it idle and the rev it up a bit… gets colder yet. I celebrate a bit.. go for a two second spin. See a coworker and proceed to brag.. hey check me out, just fixed my ac!!”
He feels it and goes, nice..
Then the compressor starts to squeal real bad so I take off hoping the squeal stops. It didn’t and the ac got progressively warmer. I shut it off and parked it.
On a scale of 1-10, how hard is it to replace the clutch, or should I just bite the bullet and replace the whole compressor?

 

[inkpot]

I have replaced a clutch in situ, but I did need to loosen/remove some of the mounting bolts on the compressor because I have the TRD Supercharger in the way. It is a royal PIA! I found one online as NOS for a Dodge Caravan from the mid 1990s that uses the same compressor. OEM clutch is nearly as pricey as a complete compressor!

 

[brockdeck]

Aftermarket clutch is going to be half the price, but might as well swap the compressor. Buy the Denso 4711-166, made in Japan OE unit and comes prefilled with oil. Available on Amazon and RockAuto

 

[flintknapper]

or should I just bite the bullet and replace the whole compressor?

How many times do you want to work on your A/C unit?

 

[MrMacdugal]

I can see where this is going. I do prefer to keep my arms from getting all greasy as few times as possible this summer. Also the ac machine can be time consuming.
Sounds like replacing it is the way to go for a couple hundred bucks

 

[flintknapper]

I can see where this is going. I do prefer to keep my arms from getting all greasy as few times as possible this summer. Also the ac machine can be time consuming.
Sounds like replacing it is the way to go for a couple hundred bucks

^^^^

 

[Dr Red]

Has any one found or made a video of replacement of the compressor on an 80?

 

[Mrtwooooo]

My question is did you put on a new belt? OEM belt? is it for sure the clutch making all of the noise? I had a pretty bad squeal from my AC compressor area awhile back and the belt had worn down a ton and was slipping. Not really sure how old the belt even was.

New vs Old belt

 

[jpoole]

I'd guess that the compressor locked up due to contamination or overcharging and that you need to flush the system out before trying to fill it again, but that's just a guess.

A year ago I refreshed the AC on my 80 and shared my notes from the job when I was done. I was able to find all of the information that I needed on the work here on the forum from members like @flintknapper so I tried to put the info that I used into one place to help others:

FZJ80, R134A Air Conditioning System Rebuild How To

Thanks to the contributions of many very knowledgeable ih8mud contributors I was able to refresh the AC on my 1997 FZ 80. A few of those contributors surely saved me a lot of time, $$, mistakes and reworking. @flintknapper and @alia176 stand out in my mind though I'm sure there were a number...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[MrMacdugal]

Hey guys. The belt is a brand new OEM belt. It went on nicely and spun the compressor just fine. The compressor itself, was seriously covered in road debris and salt residue from being dormant for a few years while the vehicle was still being used. My suspicions are that the clutch mechanism had lots of debris and the bearings were in need to some exercise. They sounded rough initially when the new belt went on and it just seemed like a dry bearing that needed lube. Started really screeching after a few minutes, turned it off. Hadn't happened again since.

I'm quite sure it was not due to contamination. I've done a LOT of ac jobs in my day and have seen very few that actually had bad contamination leading to catastrophic issues. Although it does happen.

Regardless, the noise sorted itself out long enough for me to graciously pass the cruiser on to its next caretaker. He got a great deal.