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I was sitting at a light and the windows were fogging up a little . Hit the defrost and within a few minutes I smelled that horrible burning electric smell. I pulled over, hoping the truck was not on fire and looked under the hood. I saw sparks coming from the ac compressor. I quickly shut the defrost off. The pulley spins fine, as long as I don't use the a/c or defrost. This is a repair that I have never had to deal with. What am I looking at, whole new compressor or is there someything on the front that I can replace? Clutch? I really appreciate any help here. Bill
The truck is a 94 F350 non turbo diesel.
Sounds like your compressor clutch shorted. Depending on access to the front of the compressoryou can replace the clutch separate of the compressor while it remains on the vehicle. Don't know the difference in price for the clutch versus the compressor but worth looking into especially if you don't have to evacuate and recharge the A/C system which is probably R-12 on that vehicle? R-12 is expensive and a conversion to R-134A done properly isn't cheap either. If the compressor has to come off to get at the clutch then that adds a whole different set of parameters.
Thanks John, with my luck I better be prepared to change everything over, although I hope we can just replace the clutch. I love my truck but lately it has been putting me through the paces. Since my post yesterday, my windshield fluid pump stopped working and the truck is cranking slow all of a sudden. All this for one measly 1" of snow plowing.
I changed the compressor clutch on my 90 f150 once. It takes some special tools. (spanner wrench, puller) I did it infront of an Autozone. It took me about an hour. It made sparks and lots of noise also. A new clutch comes with a new electromagnet. So that should take care of everything unless the compressor is locked up or something.
O'Reilly's has a complete clutch unit for around $100. I had to buy a cheap set of tools to get the snap rings out of the clutch. Glad I did it. A/C works like new.
My bad luck continues...it turns out the compressor is defineately locked up. I am going to try and get a rebuilt one and have an ac buddy of mine help me put it in. Thanks to all for your input.
You will really need to have the system cleaned out before you install a new (er) compressor. If you don't, your replacement will not last very long. Been there, done that.
A shop that has done a few things for me in the past told me, new comp., new dryer, o-rings. refrigerant and system cleanout, between 800 and 1000 bucks!