I agree that would be the fastest and less costly repair plus provide a good clutch assembly for the compressor.

I've decided to spend about a week, hopefully in March, to do several things including the new Denso compressor that I ordered yesterday from Walmart.com of all places.

I've read it's not unexpected to have an AC compressor fail before 200,000 miles. I expect to go past 150,000 this year.

Hoping to reduce my future work plus make the car more reliable and less noisy. It's unreal how much growling noise the worn clutch bearing makes plus I can feel a little ' catching ' when I turn the water pump pulley by hand.