My 2001 F250 5.4 V8 truck have factory installed AC. 2 or 3 times a year, the AC will stop blowing cold air after heavy load. If I turn the truck off for few hours, it will work fine again. To be clear, the AC will continue to blow air, it is just not cold and it happens few times a year. Any idea on what's wrong with it?

 

If the engine is overheating the PCM will shut it (the compressor) down.

 

agree with above....icing up will cause the system to "shut down" so to speak as well..................

 

What do you mean by a heavy load? Cargo weight, towing, or hard acceleration?

 

When towing my camper. However, it just did it again and I was not towing the camper. I pressed the gas pedal hard to pick up speed quickly to merged into the traffic. The ac stopped working for few hours.

 

Mine did that and it turned out that the a/c compresor clutch had too large of airgap. This caused it to slip and disconnect when hot out and after running for awhile. Disassembled and removed a shim to close the distance and worked fine when i sold it 3 or 4 years later

 

It's an enlarged air gap, see HVAC FAQs.

If the system were icing up, airflow would have been diminished or cut off, obviously not the case in this instance.

 

I will take a look at the air gap this weekend. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

 

BTW, just noticed this earlier response.

Not on an 01 or older SD. The PCM has no involvement in the compressor clutch operation, it's directly controlled by the series pressure switches. PCM control of the clutch started on the 02 SD line, IIRC.

 

I took it off. Two ball bearings fell out. The washer is bent. No shims, so someone fixed the air gap in the past. See two pictures. One of them shows rust spurred from clutch to the tension arms. Is it safe to say I should replace the entire clutch system?

 

You can try the clutch and pulley, but I've ended up having to replace the whole compressor to repair such failures.

 

If it's the original compressor from 2001 then I agree that the whole compressor should be replaced. You could replace just the clutch, only to have the compressor go bad in a couple of months.

 

Does the Freon have to be removed to replace the clutch?

 

No, not if you can change the clutch while the compressor is still in the vehicle.

 

i have a 01 f250 v10 that I replaced the clutch except for coil about year ago and has been working fine. Bought it from advance, was a 4 season brand. Came with shims and instructions. Took less then 2 hours.