311K miles and I've done nothing with the A/C except have it evacuated and recharged 5-ish years ago. It's never blown really cold but it does the job as long as it's not over 90F outside. I recently removed my Ranger valve (had one for 3 or 4 years now) and installed a ball valve in one of the heater lines (and just coupled the other one back together).

An afternoon earlier this week my A/C just stopped working for about 30 minutes on my commute home. Nothing abnomral, it just quit blowing cold air. No weird noise, no ventilation issues/changes/differences. Same flowrate, same ventilation setting, same fan speed. The cold air just stopped for about 30 minutes then came back. I didn't think much of it until yesterday morning when...

I have 2 condensate puddles under my truck when I get to work this morning. I usually run the dash/floor setting which runs the A/C (why can't Ford just make the A/C a button like everybody else??!!?) so I usually see a small puddle collect after I'm done driving and then evaporate. This time, though, I had 2 puddles...



Pay no attention to the fluids outside the circles. I'm also chasing an oil leak.

I came back about 1/2 hour later to get something out of my truck and the condensate was still dripping and had now made a pond:



Again, pay no attention to the fluids outside the marked area as that is the oil leak.

So I popped the hood to see if I could see something obvious. While I couldn't see anything unusual, I did notice moisture dripping of the nut, sweating on the threads, moisture to wherever the pipe goes, and a moisture spot at the bottom of the blower housing (arrows pointing to the points in question):



SInce I don't make a habit out of observing my HVAC system I don't know how normal that is. The two puddles that make a pond under my truck is abnormal, that I do know.

I'm not sure what's going on as I'm far from an A/C expert nor have I had any experience with it. With the exception of the evacuation/recharge it is all original (okay, maybe one compressor clutch air gap adjustment many, many years ago). It is one of the few things on this truck that I've not had to deal with but something tells me that's about to change.

Any observations, thoughts, personal experiences, recommendations, and/or condolences are welcome.

 

The puddles could be just because it's more humid than usual, or the angle it's parked at. The amount of condensation created depends on the temperature of the system and air conditions. It's possible that the drain is partially clogged which made more water build up in the box therefore dripping longer than usual.

As for the AC working sporadically, what I've found is usually a worn clutch. As the gap increases it gets harder for the magnet to pull it in. They'll generally work better cold than hot, backwards of what you need. In every case I've removed the spacer, little washer, from the clutch and they've gone back to 100% operation. Remove the 8mm screw in the center of the clutch, pull the clutch off, and you'll likely find a little washer that goes between the shaft & clutch. Remove it and re-assemble. Verify that the clutch doesn't rub, removing the washer might leave insufficient clearance. If needed find a thinner washer to make clearance. If you want to verify this is the cause, next time it's not blowing cold; with the engine running and the AC on use a stick or something and just tap the front of the clutch, if it engages you have too much clearance. A new clutch or the washer mod is up to you.

 

Its possible Your evaporator froze up during that 30 minutes,that could be where the extra water come from.