One day while coming back from the cement place in town with a load of gravel, as I was backing into the Midway to stage the F250 to allow me to better remove the gravel to move it to the place I was trying to cover, I started smelling what amounted to a brake burn smell. Recognizing the smell I instantly thought the front brakes might've locked up, since the right front brake caliper has been slowly leaking for some time, needing an oil top off every few weeks, since the amount of drive time over a few days total would be enough to push out enough brake oil to deplete the reservoir. Thing is, this wasn't what was burning. After parking the truck, I noticed smoke coming from under the hood. I quickly opened the hood, ready to see something that may have been on fire. Upon opening the hood I found where the smoke was coming from. The brake burn smell was coming from the clutch on the AC compressor. Apparently the compressor was either dragging or fully seized up and the clutch was dragging and in turn, burning up. After shutting down the truck, it sat for a couple weeks while I took the time to hit the local junkyard to find a replacement compressor to throw in the truck while I wait for the opportunity to get a new replacement unit.
Replacing the compressor is actually rather simple. After removing the air intake tubes, which is nothing more than pulling four worm clamps loose and pulling the twin tubes out, there are only four bolts holding the compressor to the bracket, a single bolt holding the hose base in place, and a single plug for the clutch. First thing that does have to come off is the serpentine belt. This is done by putting a 15mm wrench on the tensioner pulley and taking tension off the belt to remove it from around the compressor's pulley. From there I removed the plug then the hose base from the back, taking care to bleed off the refrigerant before fully removing the hoses. Afterward the four bolts came off quick and dirty, and the compressor was off. Replacing the compressor was the exact opposite, bolting the unit in place on the bracket, putting the hose base back on over the single bolt, and plugging up the clutch plug. The serpentine belt went back on over the pulley after putting tension on the tensioner. Like I said, quick and dirty. The air intake tubes went back on as well. With that I decided to go all the way and recharge the system. Since I have plenty of refrigerant and replacement cans of the stuff are pretty cheap, I figured I'll just get the system back online so I can at least enjoy the perks of AC for however long this compressor works for and when it does die, hopefully by then I'll have a new replacement compressor in stock, ready to install. Recharging the AC system involved me setting up the AC manifold which consists of a couple of gauges for the high and low sides of the system, along with three hoses, two for the high and low sides and one for the vacuum pump to pull vacuum on the system. The pump pulls air and moisture from the AC lines as well as creating the vacuum that would help suck the refrigerant into the system more completely so it will be filled only with refrigerant and not outside air. Since the system was opened up for only a brief time, I pulled vacuum for only 15 minutes while I cleaned up things after putting the compressor on. After pulling vacuum I removed the hose from the vacuum pump and hooked it up to a valve that the refrigerant can screws to. I turned on the AC system to cycle on the compressor then opened the valve to administer the refrigerant into the system. As the refrigerant flooded the system, the pressure will go up, causing a pressure switch in the dryer to cycle on the compressor, which would then further push refrigerant through the system. I also took time to put a can of compressor oil in the system as well. Since this is an old school system, it would end up taking two full cans of refrigerant, along with a can of compressor oil. Once I put this in, the pressure on the gauge showed it was operating in the system's sweet spot and of course, the thing was blowing cold air out. Today was actually warm enough that we were able to get an accurate assessment of the AC system's performance compared to if it was cold outside. With that, the F250's AC system is back online and of course the truck itself is back online, since without the AC compressor in place, the engine would not be able to run as the serpentine belt would have nowhere to go. That there is the only disadvantage of a serpentine belt system, if you lose one of the accessories in the system, you lose the whole system. In the old days you could sometimes get away with just removing the V belt to that one component and just ride out until you can replace that component (unless that component is the water pump). Either way, the Big Truck is back online and ready to haul another load of gravel.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2023
|