Air conditioning not working

Hey guys, I have a 1987 Ford mustang 2.3 with a 5-speed, my air conditioning has never worked, this summer it's starting to bug me and I'm tired of my dad talking about how good it worked when his mom drove the car, I tried putting in r 134a, I know it's an r12 system but I'm desperate and I'm going to replace all the seals when I swap in my turbo motor, the issue I'm having is my air conditioning clutch won't engage, both terminals going to it are 12 volt ground what seems to be the issue? Also, would it be cheaper to go to a shop to have them fix this? Or would it be better to do on my own

General karthief said:

You've already goofed up by putting 134a in a R12 system without flushing and changing O rings, it will never work right now, never, not gonna happen. A flush and O ring change is the minimum for a 'maybe it will work OK for a while' fix.
Now at the minimum I'd go for a professional flush, new dryer, orifice tube, compressor and see where it's at. JMO.
For future reference, I have witnessed Mr.Freeze get a system up a operating with cold air, lasted a couple years on a car that the system was never opened, just low on R12.

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Ah, i see, well, if it makes it any better, when i first got the car i committed a felony thinking i was bleeding a fuel line (get it? Cuz releasing r-12 is considered a felony i think?) And im pretty sure its been empty for the last 4 years, so, bottom line, theres nothin in it i know were i can find a couple old cans of r12, but i dont know if the guy would part with it.

Main issue is, the ac clutch isnt engaging im getting 12 volt ground from both wires

Noobz347 said:

Nope. This is [not] the main issue. The General outlined the main issue in his post above.

You need to find an automotive A/C shop near you.

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Okay okay, I'm an idiot, and if it makes you guys feel a little bit better I just did some research found some r12 and it turns out it's actually cheaper than the r134a I just bought I'm going to take it all out of my system, make sure Mike components are working, and then fill it with r 12. In aviation, there's a rule that applies when you put the wrong hydraulic fluid in an aircraft, you have a certain amount of time to get the fluid out, and then you can decide whether you have to replace parts or not, your time the window shrinks if you run the component. Only thing I did was fill it, and I didn't even fill it well. I'm going to dump it all out, figure out why that clutch isn't engaging and then fill it


The reason why I acted without thinking yesterday, well, my damn head was being boiled off My Brain, if I do get it working, I'm not worried about the seals, because the r134a has only been in there for less than 24 hours and hasn't been operated. Even if the seals are bad I'll replace them when I put in my turbo motor with new components

Here's an update so far,

AC clutch works, manually engaged it via applying power and ground to it.

I removed all r134a from the system

Next step is diagnosing why the clutch is not engaging on its own

Then I'll put in some r12!

Does anyone have a diagram of how the AC clutch engages so I can verify all my stuff is intact? I left my hanes manual at home