ac compressor

daytona701 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 20, 2012 11:32 pm **Posts:** 99

Hi all, first start of the day while cold with ac on the Liberty would squeal for a few seconds after start. Ac has been working good. Sounded to me like a vacuum line sucking air. Yesterday after sitting for about a hour started with ac on and squealed until turned ac off. Had helper start this morning with ac on while I was under the hood. From what I can see looks like compressor clutch engages but noticed what looks like black grease around front of clutch. I don’t know if it’s the clutch or compressor. I have minimal experience working on ac systems. I do have gauges and vacuum pump. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

thesameguy · **Joined:** Sat Oct 01, 2016 8:24 pm **Posts:** 652

There shouldn't be anything on the clutch - the clutch is (and must be) dry in order to work.. there's no external lubricant there. Internally, the compressor is lubricated by compressor oil, which is translucent, generally brownish, and pretty thin. There's nothing I can think of that would even resemble grease involved with the AC system. Are you sure it's not coming from somewhere else? Maybe torched belt?

WWDiesel · **Posted:** Wed Jun 09, 2021 3:30 pm

There is a seal on the front of the AC compressor behind the electric clutch that can leak allowing freon and lubricant to leak out onto clutch surfaces and make the clutch slip when it engages. It requires pulling the clutch assembly apart to replace the seal and it also requires special tools to perform this operation. The system MUST be degassed to replace this seal.

Most just replace the whole AC compressor when this happens....

daytona701 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 20, 2012 11:32 pm **Posts:** 99

With about 155k and 16 years I will replace the compressor and associated parts. The Liberty was vehicle number 3 and moved to number 2 when the wife’s 2012 Ram hemi went down again. The Ram needs another engine and started removing that today. Replacement hemi engines seem to be hard to get because demand is up. Mds caused a solid designed engine to be a boat anchor. The Liberty has been running like a champ. This will give me the opportunity to install the viscous delete, heavy duty fan/clutch and delete the hot thing under the truck. Next will be front wheel bearings, lower ball joints and new tires. Thanks for the advice. It showed me which way to go.

daytona701 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 20, 2012 11:32 pm **Posts:** 99

Material on ac compressor clutch looked to be remnants of seal at front of compressor. Bought a reman compressor, dryer and orifice tube from O’Reillys. Added 6 ounces of PAG 46 to the compressor since it came with a yellow tag. Installed the viscous heater delete from WWDIESEL, Hayden heavy duty fan clutch and GM heavy duty fan with 4 special bolts along with the ac components. Vacuumed and charged the ac system. Noticed the coolant gauge now stays 1 tick below straight up whereas before it was straight up. Ac blows cold in the south Mississippi tropics. Thanks again for the advice and help.

ac compressor

Who is online