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The AC wasn't blowing very cool air 66 degrees and was cycling. So, since I had half a can of freon I hooked up the gauges and added it to see if it would start cooling better again.
For a little while it was blowing cooler air at about 50 degrees but then it started cycling again. The low side was 50 psi and the high side was 430 psi. Also the pressure would equalize immediately after shutdown.
I've never had an AC system do this before. Is it a failing compressor and/or a clogged orifice tube or something else?
High side pressure is the first issue to address. Check your fan clutch. Spray the condensor with water from a hose and see what that does to the high side pressure.
Appears to be a bad fan clutch. It's not spinning the fan very fast and spraying water on the condenser brought pressure down. IR thermometer showed 157 degrees on the condenser when it was 94 outside. Still not sure why driving on the highway wasn't enough airflow though. But might have been a tad low. Pressures were 30-35 low and 250 high.
You may want to recover what is in there, pull down, and recharge with the spec as it is overcharged now. I would pull the liquid line and inspect the FOT for Teflon debris from the compressor due to that high side being way up there. Also, pull blower and use some cleaning agent on that evap unless it is fresh.
My '96 specs 38oz of 134A, yours probably does too.
The fan clutch replacement seems to have put things back to normal. I didn't really notice the missing sound of the fan the last few tines the truck was driven and didn't notice anything was wrong until trying to use the AC, but now that the fan is working the way it should that sound is back.
Those are good points. I don't think it is over charged now. I did let a small amount out though. It was only operated 3 short times for a few minutes when it wasn't working correctly. So, as long as it's working good like it is now I'm leaving it alone.
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