Fellow gearheads -
I’m either going to bore or entertain you with a really long story… try your best to not skip ahead to the pictures…
1997 Ford F150 4.6V8
Driving down highway 100° outside. AC blowing like ICE. Living in Texas, AC is as required as heaters are in the Arctic Circle.
Suddenly AC started blowing warm air - almost immediately a loud squeal / wail and the smell of rubber. Quickly believing I had a locked up compressor, I shut off the AC and the squeal stopped. We made it home without issues (or AC)…
Next day I started looking into the problem -
* Super-loud belt squeal on startup and really superbad when AC was turned on.
* I could manually turn the AC Compressor.. I put my gauges on it and had pressures that looked about right.
* Power steering pump is fine as it rolls over smoothly and fluid is full.
* Alternator seems fine - bearings smooth and charges 14v
* Water pump rolls over nicely - no wobble in the bearings.
* Clutch fan seems to be fine - no wobble and viscous coupler drag is good
—>>
Diagnosed as a weak Belt Tensioner and glazed belt. Ordered and installed a full set of Dayco tensioner, idler pulley and heavy duty 8 rib belt.
—>>
Still squealed badly - crud… (( or words to that effect - in French of course ))
—
AC was not able to blow hardly any cool air - intermittent wailing and squealing from the belt.
—
Removed the belt and rolled the AC Compressor over by hand. It was pretty stiff (remember, it is charged with the right amount of R134a refrigerant.
—
Diagnosed as an AC Compressor that is starting to fail or has failed. I brought the compressor to a local AC Supplier who said that I was lucky and caught the compressor just as it was failing. I bought the new parts from him and was on my way..
—
I Evacuated the system and Replaced the Compressor and Orfice tube (had only a couple little specs of trash in the screen). Vacuumed it down and Charged it with the required 2# of R134a.
—
Still having some intermittent chirps and squeals though - what the heck!!!!
—
Driving it the AC can barely get the temp down to 60° outlet temp with Max Air and 95° outside. When turning a corner, the belt wails loudly..
—
Shut it down in disgust and went in for the night.
—
I’m into the project roughly $300 and a bunch of driveway labor now - mind you, it’s roughly 100° every day here.
—
Next morning - I ask my wife to start the truck while I observe the AC Compressor.
It wailed and sounded like it was coming from the Compressor, but the AC was not on and the compressor clutch never kicked in… HUH??????
—
Alternating - Scratching head and butt-cheeks - I was stumped.
—
Just on a hunch, I crawled underneath the truck to observe the belt and pulleys. Alignment looked good - but wait - there’s a bit of rubber dislodged in the harmonic balancer….
Naw - can’t be! The balancer had been replaced by the previous owner’s garage roughly 2000 miles earlier. No way could it be bad!!!
—
Guess what - it was bad….
I put a yellow mark across the inertia ring and hub. Started the engine ((WAIL)) and shut it off. Dove down underneath the truck like a Terrier after a rabbit…
Sure as heck - the mark was now two marks and the inertia ring was in a different spot.
—
This is the second time in my life that I’ve had the Inertia Ring come loose from the harmonic balancer hub. I have both in the photos below. The orange one was from a Small block Chevy 301 that didn’t like the 7,000 RPM hole-shots at the drag strip..
I suppose It doesn’t help that Ford decided to turn the outer circumference of the inertia ring into a pulley.
—
I have a new Dayco Premium Harmonic balancer coming in a couple of days…. Another $90…. If it squeals now - I’m just going to push it off into my private jungle out back and pretend it never existed….
—
So my friends - how was your week?
Please feel free to share your own project from hell….
I’m either going to bore or entertain you with a really long story… try your best to not skip ahead to the pictures…
1997 Ford F150 4.6V8
Driving down highway 100° outside. AC blowing like ICE. Living in Texas, AC is as required as heaters are in the Arctic Circle.
Suddenly AC started blowing warm air - almost immediately a loud squeal / wail and the smell of rubber. Quickly believing I had a locked up compressor, I shut off the AC and the squeal stopped. We made it home without issues (or AC)…
Next day I started looking into the problem -
* Super-loud belt squeal on startup and really superbad when AC was turned on.
* I could manually turn the AC Compressor.. I put my gauges on it and had pressures that looked about right.
* Power steering pump is fine as it rolls over smoothly and fluid is full.
* Alternator seems fine - bearings smooth and charges 14v
* Water pump rolls over nicely - no wobble in the bearings.
* Clutch fan seems to be fine - no wobble and viscous coupler drag is good
—>>
Diagnosed as a weak Belt Tensioner and glazed belt. Ordered and installed a full set of Dayco tensioner, idler pulley and heavy duty 8 rib belt.
—>>
Still squealed badly - crud… (( or words to that effect - in French of course ))
—
AC was not able to blow hardly any cool air - intermittent wailing and squealing from the belt.
—
Removed the belt and rolled the AC Compressor over by hand. It was pretty stiff (remember, it is charged with the right amount of R134a refrigerant.
—
Diagnosed as an AC Compressor that is starting to fail or has failed. I brought the compressor to a local AC Supplier who said that I was lucky and caught the compressor just as it was failing. I bought the new parts from him and was on my way..
—
I Evacuated the system and Replaced the Compressor and Orfice tube (had only a couple little specs of trash in the screen). Vacuumed it down and Charged it with the required 2# of R134a.
—
Still having some intermittent chirps and squeals though - what the heck!!!!
—
Driving it the AC can barely get the temp down to 60° outlet temp with Max Air and 95° outside. When turning a corner, the belt wails loudly..
—
Shut it down in disgust and went in for the night.
—
I’m into the project roughly $300 and a bunch of driveway labor now - mind you, it’s roughly 100° every day here.
—
Next morning - I ask my wife to start the truck while I observe the AC Compressor.
It wailed and sounded like it was coming from the Compressor, but the AC was not on and the compressor clutch never kicked in… HUH??????
—
Alternating - Scratching head and butt-cheeks - I was stumped.
—
Just on a hunch, I crawled underneath the truck to observe the belt and pulleys. Alignment looked good - but wait - there’s a bit of rubber dislodged in the harmonic balancer….
Naw - can’t be! The balancer had been replaced by the previous owner’s garage roughly 2000 miles earlier. No way could it be bad!!!
—
Guess what - it was bad….
I put a yellow mark across the inertia ring and hub. Started the engine ((WAIL)) and shut it off. Dove down underneath the truck like a Terrier after a rabbit…
Sure as heck - the mark was now two marks and the inertia ring was in a different spot.
—
This is the second time in my life that I’ve had the Inertia Ring come loose from the harmonic balancer hub. I have both in the photos below. The orange one was from a Small block Chevy 301 that didn’t like the 7,000 RPM hole-shots at the drag strip..
I suppose It doesn’t help that Ford decided to turn the outer circumference of the inertia ring into a pulley.
—
I have a new Dayco Premium Harmonic balancer coming in a couple of days…. Another $90…. If it squeals now - I’m just going to push it off into my private jungle out back and pretend it never existed….
—
So my friends - how was your week?
Please feel free to share your own project from hell….