Best AC compressor to buy

[drhill]

well, charged it up with some r12, blows nice and cold out of the vents but it cycles the clutch a lot when running down the road (like every 5-10 seconds). Charge is high if anything, maybe a partial clog? The compressor makes noise and the clutch is a bit sticky with the AC off...I hate to spend $$ when I don't have to but the compressor seems tired But man it is nice and cold with the r12 (104 degree today)

[t65neon5]

well, charged it up with some r12, blows nice and cold out of the vents but it cycles the clutch a lot when running down the road (like every 5-10 seconds). Charge is high if anything, maybe a partial clog? The compressor makes noise and the clutch is a bit sticky with the AC off...I hate to spend $$ when I don't have to but the compressor seems tired But man it is nice and cold with the r12 (104 degree today)

overcharging is as bad as not having enough.....the compressor could be cycling becuse of too much pressure in the system ....did you clean out or replace the orifice tube?....that may be clogged..(requires venting the system to replace or clean.......they are relativly cheap,so i would just replace it)

[drhill]

With the gauges hooked up, the low side drops far enough to hit the low side cutoff...it rises very quickly back up...something's wrong in the compressor or there's a minor clog...high side is high (275 or so on a 100 degree day). It is ok at idle and low rpm...but rpm's get higher and it start cutting out rapidly.

If I'm going to lose my r12 charge I might as well do orifice tube, accumulator, compressor and flush the lines/condensor, but you're right, orifice is super cheap to do!

[sly]

sounds like the orifice valve is clogged up. Unless you recover the R12 first before cracking the system, yeah... you're gonna lose it to fix the issue. My rides will cycle 1-2 times before going constant in the heat here. they will maintain about 45-50PSI on the low end and upwards of 300psi on the high side (typical 100 degree day). But again... that's 134a.

[gadget73]

If theres a clog anywhere, my vote is on the orifice tube. High high side pressure and low low side pressure doesn't really tell me compressor problems. I'd expect low high side and high low side if the compressor was weak. The oriface tube is small, and has a screen though so any garbage in the system is going to tend to jam up there. Previous experience with these tells me it'll probably be sand-like material from the drier.

[drhill]

Gadget and Slymer - I'd agree, been there, done that. If there's a clog, orifice or txv depnding on the system you're working on. The clutch on my compressor is in bad shape, I am lining up a deal to get a brand new not reman compressor for the price of the clutch(inventory closeout) so I might as well replace it if I have the system open.

[hypostang]

Ok here comes the dumb question

Where is the orifice tube in our cars ?

[gadget73]

At the inlet of the evaporator. Unhook the liquid line (its the only small one) from the lower pipe on the evaporator near the firewall, and its down inside of there. Theres a tool to fish down in there and yank it out.

drhill: would you mind sharing where you're getting that from? The compressor on my car died. The front seal failed and since it has never performed all that well, I'm just going to replace it. I was leaning towards Motorcraft reman, but I'd rather a brand new one if I can get one.

[sly]

I bought new from rockauto... but it was the off-brand.

[gadget73]

rockauto has Motorcraft for 265 or so, plus a $60 core or the Four Seasons like I already have for 200ish. I already have a failed Four Seasons part, so I'm not buying another one. I can get a reman Motorcraft from Tasca for 200 bucks plus shipping and a $60 core, so about 285 initial with a $60 core return, but I expect it'll cost $15ish to get it back there, so I guess total cost would be around $240. I think I'll see if I can get a local dealer to give me pricing that will get close to that, and just do that rather than shipping an AC compressor all over the place.

[sly]

I got a spectra premium for my truck... $152 new. works fine so far. Can't even find the motorcraft compressor on RockAuto for my cars though. Seems the roundy boxes are frowned upon. Four Seasons only for those. Though, I don't see any real differences between the pictures and what I remember of what's in my 88. Does -86 use a different AC bracket with the 5.0L than 88-91?

[gadget73]

The lines changed in 89 or so, along with the manifold on top of the compressor. Compressor itself is also slightly different, I think the clutch is a little smaller or something.

[drhill]

drhill: would you mind sharing where you're getting that from? The compressor on my car died. The front seal failed and since it has never performed all that well, I'm just going to replace it. I was leaning towards Motorcraft reman, but I'd rather a brand new one if I can get one.

Sure, I got it from this guy on Ebay. It was a new Visteon compressor, just got it in the mail, it is as described. I don't know if he has more, he had it listed at $129 plus $10 shipping...I offered less and got it. http://stores.ebay.com/jamparts

Sorry for the delay - computer crashed over a week ago, just now gettiing back to normal.

[drhill]

Finally got the system flushed, new comrpessor, orifice tube and drier installed, 3.25 lbs of r12 in there...pressures are a bit high, low side and high side (40/275 at 102 degrees) but it cools very well...95 degrees this am, 34 degrees from the vents driving at 50 mph. Rose to 40 or 42 sitting at stoplights for more than a minute or two.

All good.

[gadget73]

h8 you R12 people. Mine gets down to 40-42 driving, and goes up to nearly 60 at a stop. Stupid enviro-friendly nonsense refrigerant.