A/C compressor turns on and off?

[thinger2]

It's about 0.020 - 0.035" AND I found a new NAPA R4 clutch @ >0.080" which promptly smoked itself after a week! Here's what I went through during my experience with one of my R4 compressors. It's not that hard measuring the air gap, the best way is to have 2 sets of feeler gauges, one opposite the other to achieve the proper gap. The air gap is adjusted by just tightening the nut or hitting it with a socket to close the gap, originally there were no shims used on it. in this thread I also went in to adding a relay to get full battery voltage to the coil. It turned out 11.4 VDC wasn't enough to hold the clutch in place.
This finally got my A/C to work properly. YMMV

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/swapping-the-clutch-on-an-r4-a-c-compressor.49928/

Yep, missed it by .005
But the overall is still the same
I also found the flat and parallel pretty bad.
To the point that I had to tweak the clutch face a bit so it would actually burinish the clutch instead of one side of it grinding.
If all else is working but the clutch is out of flat it may eventually grind itself to match.
And you will be doing it again.
Cuz ya just burnt the clutch trying to get it flat.
And that assumes that you didnt break the snout on the compressor when you pulled it.
That snap ring groove is pretty weak.
All in a clutch replacement is probably a temporary repair but you might get a couple of more years.
It does take a whole lot of ****** around to get it right but Im at ten years of ice cold.
And it would have been much easier to just replace the whole damn thing.
But I did save about twelve dollars which I used for beer.
Pure profit

 

[Schurkey]

I assume the orifice tube on my 2-door truck is located behind the front grill right before the condenser? Where else could it be if it's not there?

The orifice tube doesn't meter refrigerant into the condenser.

It meters refrigerant into the EVAPORATOR.

It'll be near the evaporator, close to the firewall. It's the dividing point between the high-pressure side and the low pressure side of the A/C system.

 

[Tornexted]

I tried to replace the orifice tube today and I wasn't successful. Tried to remove the grill but I don't have the tools to unscrew the small bolts holding the grill behind both turn signals until Friday, so I tried to unscrew the line that comes out of the bottom of the condenser from the right turn signal opening which I believe has the orifice tube in it and ended up bending the pipe at the bottom of the condenser. The bend isn't too bad, I hope I didn't damage the condenser. My issue here is I can't unscrew the connection with my adjustable wrench, do I need to grab the pipe while unscrewing it or am I doing something wrong? I put on some WD40 to see if it loosens up. Another question... I don't know how the heck I'm gonna get that connection between the evaporator and accumulator loose. Seems like a very tight space to work in.

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[Schurkey]

Buy a service manual. Parts locations will be included.

The orifice tube is near the firewall, NOT THE CONDENSER.

A/C systems generally have aluminum tubes sealed with O-rings and aluminum nuts on aluminum male threads. They will be very intolerant of adjustable wrenches. You need proper flare-nut wrenches or you're going to destroy stuff.

 

[Tornexted]

Buy a service manual. Parts locations will be included.

The orifice tube is near the firewall, NOT THE CONDENSER.

A/C systems generally have aluminum tubes sealed with O-rings and aluminum nuts on aluminum male threads. They will be very intolerant of adjustable wrenches. You need proper flare-nut wrenches or you're going to destroy stuff.

Sorry, I totally forgot about your earlier post... I'll check to see if it's by the firewall soon at the connection between the evaporator and accumulator. I'll head to the parts store to buy a couple wrenches. I'll leave the connection I was messing with alone.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

I'll check to see if it's by the firewall soon at the connection between the evaporator and accumulator.

Here's where it is on my 88, just behind the high pressure test port (red cap). Notice the bulge in the tube. The orifice tube is always downstream of the test port. As @Schurkey said, always use proper wrenches, adjustable left handed Chinese metric spanners are only good for breaking knuckles

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[Tornexted]

Here's how mine looks like:

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[Queso Del Rio]

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[Schurkey]

I guess I have to take back my insistence that the orifice tube is near the firewall.

 

[Tornexted]

I guess I have to take back my insistence that the orifice tube is near the firewall.

It's all good, at least we know it's elsewhere. My truck is a 96 K3500 so I assume some stuff was charged. It's probably behind the grill as I saw in a couple videos.