Alright I have one weird issue
1997 Ford Econoline HD Club Wagon E350 2wd 250k 6.8l V-10 Factory front and rear air, rear evap is there but all other components were removed from previous owner to use as a work van.

Air works great other than at idle it warms up some, not a real big issue at the moment, and also has a small vac leak somewhere as under heavy throttle or towing any bog will change vents to defrost and floor. not a big deal at the moment.

My issue right now is I was driving yesterday down the interstate air on full blast freezing me real good (awesome at speed on these 100 degree days in NC) and all of a sudden ambient air, no more awesomeness.
I pulled over to take a quick look but was way too hot to sit on the side of the interstate and look further, got the ole girl home and looked at it today.

Compressor kicks on as it should, but all the lines stay the same no condensation, blend door is moving to adjust from any vents the control tells it to.

My question is if it was low on freon the compressor wouldnt kick on at all, and if its up and cycling correctly why arent the lines becoming cold? the temp door is also working as with the van warm the air will blow hot then when i switch it back to cold it gets cool just not cold, temp of air around blower.

What is going on?????

 

I am confused as to how the compressor is running but not producing anything cold, if the clutch was worn out it wouldnt engage and what could cause it to go from nice ice cold air to immediate warm air with no warning? My system still is pressurized i am not sure what the actual reading is because i cannot find my gauge but the cold air was like someone flipped a light switch to turn it off.

 

nobody has any input??? come on yall its 100 degrees here i need help!!!haha

 

so many smart people out there and still not one person has any suggestions for my van...

 

i am extremely disappointed with this forum already

 

Still not 1 single suggestion or response about this issue

 

Wow........

 

This forum is extremely disappointing, makes me realize why I am a GM guy

 

Still looking for ford knowledge here, I am assuming there isn't any given the lack of absolutely any response to my question with not even any attempt in inquiry about my problem further

 

This is so sad, thank you all for no help. Compressor shaft broke new compressor all fixed. Thanks for well absolutely nothing....

 

I stumbled accidentally acrossed your thread on a very seldom used part of this awesome website.... I'm sorry you didn't get any help but you also unfortunately unknowingly posted in a very unused and unseen section. It's not really your fault or the fault of this site or anyone using it but this is a pretty quiet section of the site, the 97 era E series section would have likely gotten quite a bit of attention. If I had seen this post I would have suggested not necessarily the input shaft but possibly a blown head gasket in the pump (gauges would've proven this theory wrong), Dad's 88 E-150 did almost the same thing with going from cold air to almost no cooling with a head gasket blowing in the pump.

I hope you have better luck with help in the future as there are some very knowledgeable and helpful people on this site!

 

I appreciate you saying something. It's been weeks now waiting on a knowledgeable response from someone I finally broke down and bought a compressor and luckily fixed the problem. It needs o rings to seal properly but I know I have a good compressor and all else works fine. I thought about posting this thread in the econoline section but I assumed it belonged in the climate control and a/c section. Probably my fault but we'll over 300 views of this thread and still nothing but you're response.
Thank you fir helping me though, apologies if I cane off like a douche but it's over 100 degrees here with 30-40% humidity and I simply couldn't drive it and it's my tow vehicle that I use to deliver horses.

On a side note, when I pulled my old compressor off the clutch had absolutely no resistance. I assume the shaft broke. But that's what I found when I pulled it off. The guy before me over charged the system and when I bought it I never thought to check it because it worked. But it buried my gauge when I hooked it up. I'm going to put seals in it and an orifice tube while it has no pressure to be safe. It's actually a compressor off of an f150 so the pulley is larger but my van is sectioned off behind the side cargo doors do hopefully it wont present a problem. Roof is stupidly painted black with no headliner, this weekend the roof is getting a coat of white paint and issue is getting some thin insulation and a headliner. As well as side panels. Tint in near future. Doing everything I can ti keep this extra large toaster oven as cool as possible

 

If it were me I would personally consider swapping the clutch and pulley to the new pump, just for the fact you wouldn't need to worry about belt length.

I looked at your thread view count and it did get a lot of hits without any response, i'm kind of surprised no one threw out any suggestions even if it was a shot in the dark or as simple as suggesting you put gauges on it....

I'm not going to claim 100° isn't hot but I'll take it any day over the few days we have that it's 95°+ and 60-70% humidity, it doesn't even feel good to sweat it just makes you wet and hot (and not in a good way). Either way it really makes you appreciate a functioning vehicle AC system!

 

You mentioned insulation in your van, go to the E series van section on this site and use the thread search tool to find people who have done this. Lots of people have used many different types of insulation to do this.

 

**UPDATE**
After much frusturation, and a **** ton of money in freon. I think I finally got it completely fixed.
What happened is the replacement compressor with the larger pulley worked fine but was leaking from where the casing bolted together. Bad... pulled it off to exchange it luckily found out the compressor on expeditions with rear air are the same size pulley as stock, score. Found a good one with awesome compression threw her on there worked fantastic...for about 10 min... then the good compression didnt bode well anf blew out an oring at the union. researched a little and broke it down again and replace the orings more freon ran great for 10 min and BAM nothing.... pissed off i slept on it. Decided to break it down once again and replace the orifice which i decided against replacing because it cooled great prior. Come to find out when my original compressor went all the oil sludge up with buckos amounts of metal shavings and when I put the good compressor on it just pushed that crap right through the lines and clogged the orifice up. Broke loose every line up top to the evaporator and dryer blew them both out good, new orifice tube with new orings everywhere. Put it all back together and viola!! 58 degrees at idle in 95 degree sun and 47 degrees running down the road. Fricking awesome! Just finished it today hopefully in a day or so she will hold pressure and be good.

So note to anyone doing A/C work. It is definitely worth the $10 gasket kit and $2 orifice
REPLACE THEM AND BLOW EVERY THING OUT,
I spent $120 bucks in freon on this van. Could have saved a bunch if I wasn't cheap and didn't want to spend the money on orings and an orifice.
REPLACE ORIFICE AND BREAK FITTINGS BY EVAPORATOR AND DRYER AND REPLACE THEM, DO NOT REUSE ORINGS ON FITTING FOR COMPRESSOR AND USE LOTS OF COMPRESSOR OIL, AFTER EVAPORATOR IS BLOWN OUT DUMP SOME OIL IN IT TOO.
from experience it is definitely not worth cutting the corner to try and save 15 bucks.

Rant over

Hopefully this will help someone