Tuning up the AC for summer and the belt squealed.
Watching the pulley you can see it stop momentarily while it idles.

Went under to check the belt tension and it feels tight enough.
Not really any play.

But I touched the compressor and then the pulley.
They were hot, hot enough to burn me.

This car was idling in the driveway for about 30 minutes.
It seems to me it should be cooler.

Anyone have any ideas on how hot an AC compressor runs ?

My coolant wasn't even hot yet.

__________________
80 300D 340K Owned 30 yrs
83 300SD 440K Owned 9 yrs - Daily Driver 150mi/day
02 Z71 Suburban 117,000
15 Toyota Prius 2600 miles
00 Harley Sportster 24k
09 Yamaha R6
03 Ninja 250

If tuning up the AC involved adding freon, it may be overcharged.

It should not run hot enough to burn you. What you might have is a failing compressor clutch bearing. Had that happen on a Nippendenso compressor, although in my case the bearing did make some noise. Got a new bearing off the internet, and all was well.

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96 E300d

Yep, had that happen to me. Pulley would spin, but the compressor clutch would stop/start. It got that hot from the friction. The bearings soon began to make noise, sounded like a loose belt at first, then was noisy with the compressor off. I ended up cutting the belt. This was on a remanned compressor by Murray. It lasted 2 weeks past its warranty. My replacement was a new, not remanned Hodyon (Hancock Industries) compressor. It is now in it's 3rd summer. It was replaced during the summer (mid June) of 2007. 2007, 2008, now 2009. It has lasted one year past it's warranty.

Knock on wood...where is JimmyL's forehead when you need it?

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Being here on the board sometimes I feel more exposed than ever.

Pulley Bearing: Interestingly I had just that moment replaced the mag coil and pulley bearing with new as the 3 year old ones were thrashed (the bearing
went out, took out the coil). So bearing is brand spanking new.

Overcharge: Right after installing the bearing and coil I fired up the car to take a reading on the low side and is showed undercharged so I added Freon.

Now, how did I get here in the first place ?

Recently I got severe squeeling and saw the compressor had stopped turning.
I assumed the 3 year old compressor seized.
When I removed the clutch and then the pulley I found the blown out bearing and completely unwound mag coil. (compressor still attached to system and car).

I was able to spin the compressor by hand and concluded that possibly the bearing had gone out and caused the coil to come apart and also caused the compressor to appear seized.

So attempt number 1 was a new coil and bearing. A little freon and
10 minutes later squeeling again.

My new conclusion is that the seized compressor caused heat to build up
so severe that the bearing seals went away. So the compressor starting to fail caused it all.

Further, the cooled off compressor was able to spin again.. but not for long.

I have two compressors on the shelf, one new version and one used
older style with big clutch on it. I am thinking of using the older style one.

Of course I was hoping that I could leave the system sealed, I'll lose my freon and have to flush lines again.

I have dryer and expansion valve and a vacuum pump from a refrigerator compressor (sure beats the air powered vacuum pump) to pull it down with.

For flushing this time I was going to use a solvent pump and tank to create a powered flushing system but will probably use a electric fuel pump to
flush the lines for several minutes each.

Thanks everyone.

__________________
80 300D 340K Owned 30 yrs
83 300SD 440K Owned 9 yrs - Daily Driver 150mi/day
02 Z71 Suburban 117,000
15 Toyota Prius 2600 miles
00 Harley Sportster 24k
09 Yamaha R6
03 Ninja 250

For the record.

I used a infrared thermometer to check the temp of the compresosr and pulley.

On my 300SD I get 165 Farenheit on the compressor and 163 or so
on the puley. This car works really good so this is my baseline.

The 300D (the problem car) it looks like 150F compressor 147F pulley.

So I am going to conclude the 300D is doing okay.

__________________
80 300D 340K Owned 30 yrs
83 300SD 440K Owned 9 yrs - Daily Driver 150mi/day
02 Z71 Suburban 117,000
15 Toyota Prius 2600 miles
00 Harley Sportster 24k
09 Yamaha R6
03 Ninja 250

I am getting ready to flush my ac as well. Im a little clueless on the "flushing the lines" part. I read on a previous thread mineral oil? Whats the process?

Thanks