Hi. I was reading about AC in the Ranger forum and someone said there is an AC forum but it was a dead link. Can anyone direct me to it please?

I have a 97 Explorer Control Trak 4.0 OHV, auto trans with about 170K miles. The AC suddenly quit working. There was a small puddle of oil under the car on two occasions. I *think* the oil puddles occured when the AC was on but I can't swear to it. At first I thought it was motor oil and I'm still not sure it isn't. It looks like it's dripping from the general area of the back corner of the valve cover on the passenger side. I could not find any place where any of the AC lines seemed to be leaking oil. Or any other AC component. Now the clutch will not engage. I tryed jumping the pressure switch and nothing happened. I measured the voltage to the compressor and got zero. I measure the voltage to the pressure switch and got some kind of low voltage like 3 or 4 volts (I also read from each wire to ground). So far all the information I read says what to do if the pressure switch has power so now I need to continue on, or back up, as it may be. The clutch does not engage if the AC switch is on AC, Max AC, or Defrost so I'm guessing the switch is OK. I assume there is a thermostat somewhere but my Hayne's manual says almost nothing about the AC system. Also, I did the infamous "blend door fix" a couple of years ago but as far as I can tell the blend door works fine. But, is there a component in the blend door that could be causing my problem? All indications tell me that the AC suddenly developed a major leak and dumped it's refrigerant and oil but that doesn't seem to explain the loss of power to the compressor. BTW I checked the fuse and relay and both appear to be OK. When I put the low pressure gauge on the AC it reads in the good zone but I'm pretty sure that is meaningless if the clutch is not engaged.

I don't see the connection but the AC went out immediately after I replaced two of the O2 sensors. The front one required a torch to loosen it up but I cannot see how the heat could have damaged anything but I'm not ruling it out. If I could just find a wire that got burned....

It's gonna be 103 tomorrow so please help soon

 

I just tried the fourm and it worked ok
Cooling, Heating, Ventilation & A/C - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums
Maybe a moderator can move your thread?

 

Ahh, Cooling. I didn't look under that heading. Thanks!

 

There's also Automotive AC Information Forum - ACKITS.COM. It's not part of FTE, but is a great site for getting to know AC systems.

 

Good info. This thread should be made into a sticky.