I bought a reacharge kit with the gauge and when i put it on the fitting, it shoots up and says it doesn't need charging....
however, even on today's 70* day, it doesn't blow very cold, it's cool, but not cold.

any ideas or do i need to have a mechanic "purge" and recharge the system?

 

Is the compressor kicking on and how often?

 

just went out there and noticed that the AC isn't kicking on at all.
I checked fuse #13, A/C clutch, it's fine.
I see that there are several relays and a diode, but even after reading the Haynes, I'm clueless....

I see that #204 is the A/C Clutch relay and #502 is the diode for the same...

my fiance tells me the a/c hasn't worked for a while, before it was put in storage for 6 months, then driven for 3, then storage again for 4.

 

have you checked for power at the clutch. I would not go off of the cheesy guage that comes on those recharge kits to tell you pressure. get yourself a real set of guages. also what is the ambient temp?

 

it was about 70...
does that make a difference?
when i run the defrost, the A/C should kick on also, shouldn't it? so the ambient temp could be 10 degrees and it should kick on and off???

 

Ambeint temp does play a factor in weather or not your clutch should kick in or not. R134a static pressure stays fairly constant with temp. So if its 10 degress out, the static pressure in your system is close to 10 lbs. Most cycling switches open at approx 12lbs.So in a fully charged system, at 70 degress, you will have 70.7 lbs. of static pressure.

 

it could be the clutch air gap is to wide for the magnetic field to engage the clutch. this was a problem and ford does sell the shim kit to fix the clutch air gap issue.

 

so when I run the defrost in the winter, what makes the AC kick in then??

 

a/c will cycle in defrost to remove humidity from the air.

 

that's what i thought, and I don't think it's cycling.....this is going to be an expensive fix....
I almost think the dealer could diagnose just as fast, if not faster, than the local mechanic, they both charge $68/hour.

 

bumpppppppppppppp

 

its not an expensive fix if you do it. i spent 33.00 on the kit and 2 hours of time. but first i would jump the clutch to straight 12v and see if it then kicks in , if so it is one of the pressure sensors thats bad.

 

I'm ignorant when it comes to ANYTHING electrical....
how do i do this?

 

another question: if the charge is too low, will that keep the compressor from kicking on? even if only using the defrost mode?

 

yes if the charge is to low it will not cycle. what is the low side pressure when the vehicle is off?