Over the last couple of weeks I took the 240D on a little 3000 mile trip (I'm still involved in the great american engine search for the 300D) from CO to TX to CA to CO.

Anyway, before I left (3 weeks ago) I noticed the AC belt was slipping a little and I tried to tighten it. When I got into it I saw that the top bolt (pivot) was missing and that the entire bracket was loose. After pulling it apart I saw that 2 of the three bolts for the bracket were sheared off in the block and the third was just loose. Being in a hurry (and lazy), I decided it would probably be OK if I just tightened the one bracket bolt and replaced the missing compressor bolt (which also goes through the block). Not so much diesel breath.

Well, after a few 100 miles the belt started slipping again so I (unsuccessfully) tried to adjust it again then just stopped using the AC for the rest of the trip (including some 110F drives in the desert). I just didn't want to mess with it on the road, too busy working.

When I got home last weekend I took it apart again and found that I now had three bolts broken off in the block and one bolt broken off in the compressor. Not knowing when to give up, I proceeded to remove the bracket and tried to drill/extract one of the bolts (after spending about $100 on a 90 degree drill attachment and some extractors). As expected, that didn't work, so I was left with the compressor hanging by the hoses. I tied the compressor in place, cut off the belt, took it to my indy to have it evacuated, and made an appointment to have them remove the broken bolts.

This morning, the indy spent about an hour getting the broken bolts removed (by tack welding a nut to the broken piece) and sold me a new compressor (I had completely trashed the compressor by breaking of the bolt and stripping the threads, not to mention destroying the clutch when it was rattling against something for about 2000 miles.

This afternoon I finally reinstalled the bracket, new compressor, and belt with no problems. Tomorrow morning I'm bringing it back to the shop for a flush, new dryer, evacuation, and R-12 charge. Hopefully, that will be the end of the story (it shouldn't have any leaks) and I will have AC again. I can hardly wait to see the bill and find out how much it cost me to be lazy and not fix it correctly the first time.