Saturday phone a friend...

[curtiss]

Rather than use the phone, Seems the air conditioner clutch on my daughters Jeep has gone out. As she is at a wedding 350 miles away...The outside pulley on the AC still seems to turn freely, can she drive home without using the AC in this condition ? I would assume the last 100 miles on the way up were driven with the clutch out....thanks to all

[dmidkiff]

There is a plug on the back of compressor (on a chevy). Unplug and should be okay if the pulley is free.

[Xray]

Tough to diagnose unseen, if there is any wobble then of course there is a danger the belt will fracture.
They don't necessarily have to seize up to fail. Any wobble should by heard and/or felt as a strange sound/vibration, I'd be leery of driving it 100's of miles if such is heard or felt.
They do make dummy clutch pulleys for those who don't want to spend $100's on a new unit, it also possible with most vehicles to get a shorter belt and just take the AC out of the loop all together.

[curtiss]

thanks for the help...

They were able to install an "AC bypass bracket" and pulley and get on the road, not easy to do on a late Saturday afternoon but,

I think it must have got low on coolant and the clutch cycled a lot before going out...

seemed to be some dusty metal around the area... on to the next fix...

[Brian Harnett]

The clutch and the freewheel bearing are separate I just had the same issue on my Tacoma I have not replaced it yet, I found buying the compressor with a clutch on it was cheaper by a lot than getting another clutch. put about a thousand miles on it since the clutch went if not more.

[curtiss]

Using 20 20 hindsight, I should have made a laminated card of a few basic car maintenance issues and placed it in the glove box. I know I have explained the AC system and “constant cycling clutch” a few years back, but they will not remember things unless it is on a phone app.


One thing to do with any young driver is to take them to a junkyard sometime to pick out a few parts, they need to see firsthand some serious damage, blown out airbags ... it makes an impression.