Oh yea, I fixed that son of a gun (AC Compressor pulley)

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Long story short.  I'm not a mechanic, I'm medical.  Most I ever do is change my oil (on the Explorer not the Infiniti).  I have an old '01 Explorer and last week the bearing went out on the AC compressor pulley.  Took it to two shops and they both quoted me between 550-700.  Bump that.

 

Got on YouTube ... watched a few videos and went "yea, I can do that". 

 

-Thursday after work I went at it.  Removed the serpentine belt, unscrewed/removed the AC compressor clutch, removed the pulley and clutch coil.  Went to the Autozone website and ordered a new AC clutch/pulley/coil package with next day delivery.

 

-Friday (I was off work) the package came about 2.  Installed the clutch coil which took a pretty long time (lots of gentle hammering).  Tried to install the pulley ... and the sucker wouldn't go on.  Bloodied my knuckle and  called it a day.  Figured I had screwed up and was wondering how to get it to the shop with my head hanging low. 

 

But...!

 

-Today - After a couple cups of coffee I was back at it.  Armed with fine grit sanding paper ... I gentle went around the edge of the compressor shaft and was finally able to start working on the pulley.  After many gentle taps with said hammer ... sucker went all the way on and I secured it with the snap ring.  Before installing the clutch, I hooked the serpentine belt back up...cranked it and to my surprise the pulley did go spinning off.  Installed the clutch .. cranked it again ... turned on the AC and holy crap...it worked.  No weird noises, sparks or smoke.

 

So .. I spent ..

$86 for the kit

$30 for the serpentine belt removal tool

$15 for snap ring pliers

$8 for a baby hammer

=$139

 

So basically I saved at least 400 bucks (if it holds together...ha).

 

No real reason for this post ... just happy when I fix something which normally isn't in my "comfort zone" especially when it saved hundreds of dollars.  

 

 

Old pulley removed.  You can see the ball bearings in the center of the pulley (left) ... when it went out it produced a lot of heat/smoke which I'm assuming started cooking the clutch coil (right).

 

 

New install...

 

Morale of this story ... you can do anything with YouTube and a hammer.

[shockz]

Just now, Jim K said:

Bloodied my knuckle and  called it a day. 

The car gods demand a blood sacrifice. 

 

I've not once been able to fix something on my car without it drawing blood lol

[Jim K Global Moderator]

5 minutes ago, shockz said:

The car gods demand a blood sacrifice. 

 

I've not once been able to fix something on my car without it drawing blood lol

yea, wasn't so much the knuckle that made me call it a day ... but just I couldn't get that pulley to work its way onto the shaft.  Frustration was mounting by time I whacked my knuckle up against the power steering reservoir bolt.  Figured that I probably bent the ac compressor shaft just enough on the lip (while installing the coil clutch) preventing the pulley from being installed (which is why I went after it with sand paper this morning).  Yea, I wasn't happy yesterday evening ... lots of curse words so I had to call it a day after giving the blood sacrifice. ha

[sc302 Veteran]

53 minutes ago, shockz said:

The car gods demand a blood sacrifice. 

 

I've not once been able to fix something on my car without it drawing blood lol

Changing the oil or the air filter even requires a blood sacrifice.