I watched a few vids on youtube about replacing a clutch. cant find anything on a dodge, but found one on a ford. It looked fairly easy. How hard is it to change the A/C clutch on our trucks? i am 60% sure thats what went out, but if its a $20 part instead of a $180 part, i want to try that first.

 

I think the biggest thing is clutches aren't that available. Most parts shops carries the compressor with clutch only. Not separate clutches.

 

Clutch might be available from an A/C shop. Getting it off is not too hard, remove the nut and the clutch will come off either a splined shaft or a keyed shaft. The problem will be setting the proper gap between the clutch and pulley (rotor) when the new clutch is installed. This is done with current applied to the lead for the coil which creates a magnetic force and pulls the clutch to the face of the pulley (rotor). Shims are used to set the proper gap, but the gap can be a little unbalanced (one side of the clutch contacts the pulley, while a part of the clutch may not contact the pulley) and not easy to adjust for those without compressor manufacturing/installation experience.

Would be surprised if it is the clutch that is bad. It's a pretty simple part with some flat springs and a machined face which contacts the rotor. Unless one or more of the springs are broken, there really should be nothing wrong with the clutch. The only things on the exterior of the compressor that usually fails are either the bearings or the coil. Not knowing what your issue is, my guess is the coil.

 

I work for a large auto a/c shop and there are no clutches avail. for that compressor. Must get a whole compressor with clutch. Make sure you flush the system, replace the accumulator and update your liquid line/orifice tube to the 2006 one. PM me for info. Use only new parts!

 

sled4fun, sent you a PM

According the rockauto the 2004 and 2006 orifice tube is the same PN. i am kinda nervous doing all this myself, but it would be much more cheaper then having a garage do it. the only part i cant do is evac/vacuum/recharge.

 

What type of compressor oil does our A/C system use. i am looking at using the AMSOIL Synthetic PC Series Compressor Oil (ISO 100, SAE 40). Will this work or does A/C systems use something special?

 

We use Pag oil of the proper weight for R134a.

note: The old R12 refrigerant (pre 1993) used a mineral oil.
R134a uses Pag oil.
Ester oil is an oil that can mix with mineral oil and R134a during a retrofit.

We never used ester oil because when we retrofit we flush the system and then use pag oil.

 

i have found different places on the web that say our trucks take PAG 46 or PAG 100 and a few that have said PAG 150 will work, i dont have my compressor in yet but im sure that will tell me which one, but i want to go ahead and get everything ordered so i am not scrambling to find parts in parts stores.

Which ones does mine take, 2004.5 year truck?

 

My ac quit working and the local ac shop said it was the clutch that went out. They also said the 06 & 07 models was worst and it was not uncommon to do clutch replacement on 2 or 3 a day. Cost of replacement quoted to me was $550 for a new clutch or $950 for a new compressor installed. Is this a good fair price? Truck has 95,000 miles and I'm wondering if I should replace the compressor instead of the clutch.

 

I paid $900 for my compressor replacement and a recharge. Mines out again and I'm not looking forward to paying another $900.00 to replace it

 

I just ordered new compressor from napa 439 I didnt flush anything why would you if just the clutch is bad just swaped it and recharged it the end

 

Found just the clutch coil on ebay for $47 . Haven't got it on yet but figured it was worth a try for that money. This one is for an 06-09 is what it says. Mine is out I checked it with jumper wire. I had power when I started trying to find the problem but now I don,t have power going to my coil.

 

Holy smokes- this is the exact thing that is happening right now! yup, dealer said they will rebuild the clutch -700 bucks. (nothing with the compressor) we did not want to mess with it just for the recharge issue and teardown (whole front of truck comes apart per dealer)

definitely will do some labor if it saves me big bucks!

eric, i sure do not want to repeat your situation!!! yes, what can I do- we are at 130,000 on the 04 one ton.

 

Put the coil on yesterday. Not to big of a job. 1 hour probable. It works fine with jumper but still no power from tipm. If i hadn't of messed that up i'd be in business

 

What dealer on ebay had these? All I can find are for gas truck compressors.