Well, the A/C has to go on the backburner for awhile, because the Idle Speed Control Motor is rearing its ugly head again, and I have to keep this car on the road.

The technical issue is almost certainly the control valve as stevebfl states. I went back through my notes and I had added almost a full charge (on the low side, with no suction to help) to the point where I had 105 psi on both sides, with the hub spinning, and no compression. The dealer tech put a full charge in, it worked for awhile, but after it stopped I found that the pressures were almost down to where I had them. So the compressor only compresses when the system is completely charged, but I must have a leak somewhere. The thing isn't intermittent - It works until it stops, and that's it.

I have spent a huge amount of money and labor trying to get a $200 rebuilt compressor to work. If I had worked on this myself from the beginning, I would have found the three leaks in the condenser and replaced it. The sytem would have run a long time, I think, before the minor leaks in the compressor and evaporator would have stopped it. Even if I had let the dealer install a new compressor for $1,600 last year, it would have worked for awhile until it had leaked too much. And then the dealer would have looked harder and realized the condenser was the main problem, and then he would have charged me another $600 or so to replace it and I probably would have been set.

But that's water under the bridge. In the car is a rebuilt compressor, with the suspect control valve. I returned it to the guy who rebuilt it last year. It works in his machine shop, so he won't replace it. He insists that I have an electrical problem and is if no help to me. And he may not be rebuilding or testing his compressors properly, so I wouldn't want another compressor from him if he offered it to me. It's 1.6 hours plus $141 recharge per roundtrip on these compressors, and I've been on 4 roundtrips so far.

I also have the original compressor, which would be in working order (not counting the leak at the shaft seal) if I hadn't screwed around with the control valve. By the way, both of these compressors' clutches draw around 4 amps (figured I'd compare everything).

Am I close to having two good compressors? Can I get a shaft seal for my old (Nippondenso 7SB16C) compressor? Can these control valves be repaired or adjusted somehow? If not, who can I trust on a rebuilt, or new compressor? I really want to get the thing working as cheaply as possible, so that I can find any leaks.