To update this is what I did. My Mom owned the truck when I put a conversion kit on it and found out the compressor had a hairline crack. A couple of years(01/03) later I bought the truck. A few weeks ago I bought a compressor out of the junkyard and swapped them. I filled the system with a kit of 3 cans (oil,stop leak and refigerant in one can) guage read 44 when done.

The A/C worked great for about 15 minutes down the road then the clutch would stop spinning. If I would tap on the front of the clutch it would start spinning for 5 minutes. I thought maybe there was too much in the system so I let some out(just a guess newbie here). Well now it was at 25 lowside and the clutch was clicking on and off. I put the guage on it and it was going from 44 to 24 back and forth. ok from what I have read this is normal for a low charged system.

Now I got around to putting a can of 134 only in today and it's at about 32. The A/C worked fine for a while(20 minutes down the highway) then the clutch stopped spinning again. I bought a test light and there is current to the plug when the clutch stops spinning and if I tap on the front of the clutch it starts spinning. I think my system is working alright and I have a problem with the clutch.

Can this clutch be fixed? someone said something about shims. Where are they? I took out the bolt in the front and pulled out the outer round thing. All I could see is a spline and a C clip. If I take out that C clip will the clutch and pully come off and is there something I could fix in there? Autozone want's $88 bucks for a new clutch. What should I do.

 

I drove to the market today and the A/C was fine both way's. When I got home I took off the cycling switch and turned the screw back (counter clockwise) 1/8 of a turn. This brings the setting down to 22 from what I've read.

I then measured the gap with my old feeler gauge(Time for a new one) the gap is greater than .032. I looked in the hole and didn't see any shims. Sprayed some WD40 and still nothing. There is some dirt or rust in there so they might be in there.

I noticed some rust on the back of the clutch plate so I took some sandpaper to it and then sprayed it with WD40 and hosed it off. I also sandpapered the front of the pulley. Now before when I would pull off the plug and put it back on the clutch plate wouldn't engage right away. Now it engages right away. Does this make any sense? I don't know how the clutch works, but now it works better.

I did some reading and it is said that on the Bronco and F-series trucks they changed the fan clutch and a condenser with fins on the side and something else(I can't remember).
I did notice that I have an oil cooler in the upper corner in front of the condenser. Will this effect anything?

 

Well I did some research and found this site:
http://www.type-911.co.uk/images/gen...C%20System.htm

I didn't know the clutch worked on a magnet. I guess with the rust and the wide air gap it wasn't connecting totaly. I'll know tomorrow. I don't want to count my chickens yet.

 

Yes, excessive air gap will cause failure to engage. It was probably staying engaged after you pushed it in to close the gap untill the cycling switch disengaged it and it couldnt pull closed again.

 

Well the clutch still didn't work right,so I looked for shims. I thought the shims were in the pulley hole. Nope just a piece of felt. Then I looked in the clutch hole and there was a small washer. I took out the washer and put the clutch back on and it fit against the pulley. I then found a washer 1/2 the thickness of the one that was in there and put it in then measured the air gap and it was now .022. I drove the truck for an hour or so and the A/C worked great.

 

Yes, that is the correct location of the shims, in the hub. Sounds like you fixed her up.