Is My AC Broke?

[Wease]

OK, the obvious is that the AC in my '86 GT does not work. No cold air at all. However, I had it on today and noticed that the compressor comes on in spurts. The car is running, the AC is on, and the compressor will come on for like a second, then go off. That's not right, is it? I have no idea if anything else works properly. I'm guessing that it should come on and stay on when the AC is set to be on, so could it be the clutch on the compressor? Without taking it somewhere and them charging me an arm and a leg, is there any test I can do to see what else might be broken? I won't pay a lot to fix it, I'd rather take it off than spend a ton to have to work, but I am curious what is up with it...

 

[gopher_6_9]

Well the ac will cycle on and off like you are talking about, but if it only cycles on for like 1-3 seconds then cuts back off you are low on freon and probably have a leak...

 

[90mustangGT]

Taking it to a shop won't cost that much compared to throwing unneeded parts at it. Usually if there isn't enough or there is too much freon in the system a relay will shut it down. Either that or a sensor is reading wrong. Usually if you are low it won't come on at all. Maby someone tried to fix it but didn't know what they were doing. It's an 86, who know's what's been done to it.

 

[88pony]

find a shop that does the a/c check. have thim fill the system and put the uv dye in you have a leak. than use a black light to find the leak. it depends on if it has been converted to r134 or its still r12. were im at 134 is 5.99 for a 12oz can and 40.00 a 12oz cao of r12. you have to have a linces to buy r12.