Just a wild uneducated guess.
Orifice tube?

 

Maybe so. I just don’t have the tools or skills to work on that stuff, looks like I’ll just pay the man.

 

I know that feeling. Rear axles are that way with me. But after this last fiasco I am going to learn how.

 

Yeah, I'm dealing with AC now. Really no special tools required, except to reclaim the freon. Many of the parts stores will loan you gauges and a vacuum pump. In my case, the compressor locked up and broke my serpentine, so I was on the side of the road not going anywhere without replacing the compressor. No choice but to release the freon back into the wild or pay for a tow, and then pay some tech to reclaim.

Silly me, didn't even realize I had two compressors on this bus until doing my other work this week. If you think your compressor is buried, you should see the second one of this Eseries. I had to take the degas and air box off just to catch a glimpse of it, either above or below. It's not working either, but I was able to use a screwdriver to confirm that it's not locked up. Being Bonehead, I'm thinking that since it's held freon while sitting in my driveway for three years, and worked for a thousand miles before stopping last trip, that I might get another trip out of it by just adding some freon, and then worry about both of them next spring. That rear AC will cool the entire bus by itself; it's powerful.

Not sure how the 2016s work, but on this bus, I only had to remove the front half of the stator, then just unbolt the back half and push it back to have enough room. I lucked out though, the butcher tech who worked on this for the PO left the hard bolt out when putting it back together (I assume he's replaced it before - this bus had lots of idle time with the ACs pumping full blast as it waited for the cruise ship passengers to load/unload all day long).

 

Have you replaced a pressure switch? Someone told me today it has a shraider valve under it and no need to draw down the system. I don’t know that’s the issue but it’s probably the last try for me to repair it. I stopped by a local shop that I was referred to by a couple of folks on my way home Today. The A/C guru was out sick so no luck today or maybe tomorrow either. There’s a couple other places in town of course but I’m a little hesitant to go in completely blind.

 

Out sick you say. I bet he had a cold.

 

Rusty, You are low on freon and have a leak if the comp is cycling like that. Press switch is doing its job. press is going low when comp comes on,and shutting comp off,,then press rises when off, then comp comes back on. Just went thru it yesterday with my truck. Check your high press side shraeder valve core . Under the black cap at top pass side of radiator. Thats where mine was leaking bad. Also ck the low side service port valve core under the black cap on accumulator. Found the orings to be shot on high side . I have my own gauges and vac pump .. So ,i bought new valve cores at oreilly for $20 bucks,,changed them out ,,vaccummed and serviced ,,and all is good.

 

I could be wrong but I thought I saw the pressure rise when the compressor comes on, just over 50psi on the low side (cheap gauge on a can). Then it clicks off and drops fairly quickly, when it gets down to 5psi the compressor comes back on and it pumps back up to 50 then off again over and over. It does cool a little bit and makes a little condensation puddle under the truck but temp at the vent doesn’t go below 65ish. I have the electronic controls so no max A/C button, that’s with the A/C on and the temp at its lowest setting (60°). The clutch was pretty chewed up and I’ve only replaced the cover but it seems to click with authority when it comes on and releases quietly. My uneducated guess was maybe the cheap gauge was wrong and it WAS over-pressurizing or the switch thought it was. Do you know if the switch can be changed without re-servicing the system?

 

You need to watch it again .The compressor is going off ,when press low,,and on again ,when it builds up press.. Yes, the pressure switch can be changed without dumping system . But your press switch is doing its job. at around 23psi ,it opens and shuts compressor off,,at around 43 psi ,,it closes and allowing pwr to go to pcm ,,pcm then grounds pwr wire for clutch relay , closing relay and sending pwr to clutch coil. You can jump the press switch plug and your compressor will run .. Like i said before ,,,if your clutch is cycling like that , you have a leak and are low on freon. You've done enough and learned enough of these trucks , for a small investment of a couple hundred bucks,, you could buy gauges and a vacuum pump and fix a/c by yourself instead of paying out the *** for a shop to do it. Shoot me a pm and ill give you my phone # and can talk you thru some easy t/shoot steps

 

You can borrow a pump and maybe gauges from the local parts store.

 

Thank you Sir! The stupid Hurricane kinda re-arranged my priorities a little. Everybody is good and no major damage but I do have some clean-up to do. I should be able to get back on this next week. I’ll double check the symptoms and shoot ya a PM if that’s ok.

 

Living in Houston area ,,i definitely get hurricanes re-arranging priorities. Glad to hear everyone is good and no major issues.. Absolutely that's ok.. Get with me when you're ready.