I turned on the A/C in my 2001 F150 for the first time this season, on the first day to exceed 80 degrees, & found no cold air coming through the vents. The F150 is not my main vehicle & I intend to use it for hauling stuff, and not for pouring much more money into than I absolutely have to. I can do without A/C indefinitely.
I have had A/C compressors seize up on previous vehicles & don't want this to happen on my F150.
Is there anything I can do (cheap) to prevent things from getting worse?

 

If the compressor doesn't engage due to common issues, the pulley on the compressor just free-wheels. There's little risk of anything seizing up.

 

I once had a '96 Town & Country minivan whose A/C compressors twice seized up and whose free-wheeling pulleys also locked up - they tried to spin whether or not I had the A/C turned on. After the second seize-up, I had the shop remove the dead compressor and substitute an idler pulley for a small fraction of the cost of fixing the A/C.
I don't know if the F150 compressor is a problem. I kind of suspect the refrigerant has leaked out, but I'm not interested in paying anything to figure out the exact cause, since I can do without the A/C altogether.
Now & then I do have to turn on the Defrost setting to blow condensation off the windows, I know that switch will activate the compressor in any weather.
I was thinking of pulling the electric plug to the compressor to prevent it from being engaged by the Defrost setting.
Are there likely to be any bad results from doing that?

 

If it's low on refrigerant, the low pressure switch will prevent the compressor from coming on, in A/C mode and defrost.

I have had many vehicles with dead A/C systems, and had no problems since like was said before, it does nothing but sit there and spin with the clutch disengaged. The clutch can eventually wear out, but like wise the waterpump, power steering pump, etc. can wear out also.

Spend $15 on a can of r134a and put that in and it might start working again.

 

if you dont want the compressor get an ac delete pulley

 

I guess I got traumatized by my bad experience with 2 successive Chrysler A/C compressors, and want to avoid any further trouble (or expense). I know I can put in an idler pulley but don't see the point in doing that if the compressor can be left in a nonrunning state.
Can there be any harm from simply disconnecting the electric wires to the compressor?

 

You can, but there's no point in doing so since a system that is too low on charge will never try to activate the compressor clutch. Your compressor is already in a non-running state.

 

Chryslers are notorious for the clutches to lock up, the compressors are normally still salvageable.

 

Recharge the AC and add leak check dye. Then have it checked in a few weeks to see where it leaks, have it repaired when it gets low.