A/C Clutch burning, serpenitne belt smoking, twice!!!
 

:ford: 2003 Ranger XL 2.3L

This is really strange: Last week my A/C stopped and I noticed smoke coming off the front. I checked and it was coming from the serpentine belt at the A/C clutch pulley.

I drove home with no A/C (we are at ~106 degrees in Arizona right now). When it cooled off, I removed the clutch plate which was all "toasted" and found the bearing plastic cover was burned up, and the bearing was missing half the rollers.

So I replaced the bearing and the pulley with an old one that looked pretty good. I used the same front plate since I did not have another one.

Two days later, the same thing happened! This puzzled me because I had thought the original problem was a bad bearing, that had caused the clutch to get stuck, but with a good bearing... what can it be?

I bought a brand new clutch, plate, pulley, bearing, and coil that I plan on installing on the weekend, but I am afraid to have spent $106 on something that two days after will burn up again.

Could it be that the compressor seizes inside? Could it be that the coil was weak, or the air gap was too big and this created friction, thus make the whole thing get too hot? Does anyone have any idea?

Any hep would be appreciated!

Yes, it was compressor problem the first time, and so the second time as well.

You will need to replace compressor but you also need to flush the system because failing compressor will flood lines with metal filings, so a new compressor would just suck those in and only last a short while.

The thing is, though, that I can spin the compressor shaft relatively easy. It is not stuck... so I wonder if it was the clutch or the air gap, or can the compressor get stuck so hard that the pulley won't turn, and then suddenly turn again by hand?

Even with the rubber spacers on the plate burned up, right now, the clutch engages and the compressor works, but I am afraid it will happen again, so that's why I was wondering if it was something more like the air gap or maybe a weak coil...

I usually remove the spacer washer from inside the clutch center hole and it removes some air gap and the coil works better( on wore parts)

Yeah, tomorrow I will install the brand new clutch, and will leave the smallest gap I can. I'll see if it can at least take me through the summer. I've been driving on 106-107 heat for the past week. :indiffere

Just want to update in case anyone else runs into the same problem.

My A/C is working great right now. I say "right now" because the last time it worked great for a couple of days before the clutch burned up.

I installed a brand new clutch. Taking the coil off is a bit of a pain in the neck, but putting the new coil in is a big pain! It is really hard to get the coil in because you have to tap it into the compressor and it is a pretty tight fit. Still, you can do it yourself.
What I did was unbolt the compressor (removed all 4 bolts) and tilt it, pulley side up.
I placed the old coil on top of the new one, to make sure I was hitting it evenly and also to keep from damaging the new pulley with the hammer.
You have to bang it pretty hard to get it all the way in. IT DOES go all the way in.

Then you put everything back together, making sure you leave a small enough air gap to keep it from engaging (using shims), and not as big as making it too hard on the coil to pull.

Hope this helps anyone having the same issue.

Thanks for the update and fix