My wife has a 97 Eddie Bauer 5.4L. She loves this car. She got it in 2001 with 68,000 on it and now has 275,000 all highway. Rebuilt motor was installed at 175,000 as a head-gasket leak developed and it was cheaper to get a motor than do new heads.

Last week we noticed the AC in the cab was getting variable, like it would get real humid then go back to a dry cold, at times blowing no cold air at all. We had a 100-degree+ day when this started happening. Then we started hearing a rattling. Last evening I put 2 cans of 134a in it. The ac clutch was engaged the entire time and the ac on. The guage in the kit never went past 50 and settled around 30, outside air at 77. When I first started the motor, ac off, the compressor was making a rattling noise. When the clutch engaged, this quieted somewhat. Seemed to get better as 134 was added. I turned the ac off again, noise started, would not stop with clutch engaged. Wife drove to the store and the battery light came on, so I told her to take my truck to work today while I try to figure this out.

I think the compressor bearing is out. I theorized that the battery light came on maybe cause the belt stuck and stopped the alternator, but not sure. The light did go off, and there was no squealing associated with that. I talked with a mechanic we trust, he said I screwed up and may have overpressurized the system. He doesn't have the 134 a recycling capability, and doesn't seem to want to touch it. I can't afford to dump a bunch of money into this thing. I have some mechanical skills (I wrench on my 6.0 powerstroke a lot) but haven't worked on ac before. Pointers and suggestions, anyone?

 

You likely just needed a clutch hub to start with. Of course it's now got an unknown amount of refrigerant in there...

Inspect the clutch hub for separation. Remove the serpentine belt and hand-test the pulley bearings. If the pulley and/or the hub is bad, replace with Motorcraft replacements and re-test.

 

probably needed some oil and you ran it

 

Thanks for the help so far. I called around and found a guy to legally evacuate the system and recharge it when I'm done, and ordered some parts from the local NAPA. Then, when I took it in to empty it out, the guy took one look and said I only need a clutch from what he can see. What a relief. I was NOT looking forward to working on this. This guy will fix it and correctly charge my system back up. Keeping my fingers crossed that no other damage is done. Still have that battery light on, though. Not sure why. Hopefully this guy can figure that out, too.