alright looking to see if there are any common things with these trucks that i should check first. Its a 2000 f150. 5.4. A/C was iffy last summer from what i remember but i just put down the windows alot anyways. this year i had an expressway commute so the A/C was needed. I noticed it would be cold for about 5-10 minutes then become warm and cycle back and forth between cold and warm. ok so its low on freon and i dont know the service history of the A/C so i take it to my shop and have them vacuum out existing freon and replace. it was about 10oz low. they also added a dye and checked all of the belts and hoses. no noticeable issues. seemed to work fine when i picked it up. now i only have A/C for 10 mins and its really cold but then it goes warm and doesnt come back cold. stopped by the shop to talk to the mechanic and we noticed the compressor wasn't running at all. so i am thinking electrical right? any ideas are appreciated.

 

Sounds like your refrigerant leaked back out. The compressor won't run if the level is low. Start looking for traces of the dye.

 

Perform a "shimectomy"

Your clutch has worn and the gap is now excessive. Measure it to verify a shimectomy is called for.

Steve

 

ill take a look at the clutch. im probably going to take it to the shop monday and they'll check the dye and freon level. they said they think its electrical. he mentioned the cycle switch going bad quite often. any one know where this is and how to tell if it is bad?

 

Okay, don't take 10 minutes to fix it yourself. Go ahead and pay a shop to do all kinds of stuff that probably isn't needed. He probably needs to make his boat payment this month anyway.

Steve

 

could you please give me more info on this shimectomy? i have to take off the clutch and remove the washer right?? pictures??

 

well i believe i performed a shimectomy today. i removed the clutch plate and took out the SMALL washer and reassembled. (1 bolt. lol)

as i cannot afford to let my truck run for 20 minutes just to check the A/C, but ill use it today a couple of times but tomorrow or Wednesday will be the real test when i drive about 20-25 minutes. then this weekend im taking a 2.5 hr one way trip up north with my quad in the bed so i shall see how it does then. if this did indeed fix my A/C i will do a new thread titled shimectomy for anyone in the future who is searching for the topic and cannot find the information like myself.

so far so good.

on a side note i noticed that when my A/C is turned off the clutch plate still spins a bit. is this normal? or should it be a complete stop?? did i over tighten or under tighten the plate??