BobcatSteve

My cousin has a '93 Ranger. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't notice the engine size. 4 cylinder, I think. It has a plastic fan with a traditional thermostatic fan clutch. The clutch feels about right to me- a little drag cold, but turns. It has some axial play, though. Not enough to see visibly, but you can feel it if you hold the fan with both hands.
Here's the story. He had a universal aftermarket A/C compressor (R12) installed a couple weeks ago. The first compressor leaked out all the oil and refrigerant overnight, so they replaced it. The second one works OK, but has a tee on one of the fittings that leaks almost constantly. It seems to be a relief valve sort of setup, but nothing I'm familiar with. I work on R134 systems all the time, but don't know much about R12 systems. Was a relief common on them, and would there be a case they could leak under normal operation?
The garage told them the fan clutch was loose, and this was causing the refrigerant to "boil over." If this is referring to the leaking fitting, they're full of it. It does it at cold idle when you can put your hand on the engine. Like I said above, the fan clutch doesn't seem to be causing any problems anyway. The compressor clutch disengages every time you rev the engine, so I'm thinking they overcharged the system, and don't know how to diagnose it. I can't believe they replaced the compressor and drier and never even mentioned the possibility of conversion to R134.

big1

I'm sorry "Bobcat" but your location isn't given and it would help.
The fan clutch operation seem's normal, without being there it's difficult to say, but if there isn't an over-heating problem don't worry.
The mechanic is a fool. There's not a connection between the fan clutch and the pressure's in the A.C..and for the life of me I can't think of a vent of any sort in an R12 system. Their suppose to be sealed.

__________________
When in doubt :DON'T
Valley Station, Kentucky
Dream EXPression Racing
http://fordexp.freehomepage.com/photo3.html

89F150

how long ago was this done. I agree, they should have told him about the conversion.

BobcatSteve

Location is Dallas, TX. Actually, a bad cooling system can show up first as an AC problem, because it raises the ambient temp at the condensor, right next to the radiator. I really doubt that has anything to do with anything in this case, though. They just did the work a couple weeks ago. I've heard of charging R12 until you don't see bubbles in the drier sight glass. If this is the way they do it and they don't have a lot of experience, I can see that as asking for an overcharge situation. The quote "relief" is a tee at one of the lines going into the compressor. One of the legs of the tee isn't connected to anything. I guess I can't think of any reason for it to be there unless it's an emergency pop-off sort of thing.