So I was searching around the other day for common reasons the A/C might stop working. I recently bought a '97 Cobra off a friend. He told me the A/C was working fine forever then one day while driving it just started blowing hot air. Which sounds exactly like what happened to my old '97 GT and on the GT it turned out to be some switch that went bad. I don't really know what switch or sensor it was, I was in the Air Force at the time and stationed in Korea and just had my mom take it somewhere while I was overseas. I just wanted to have the A/C fixed for my drive from New Orleans to Las Vegas in August.

Anyway back to the subject, so I started poking around the A/C unit to see if I could find something simple like a loose connector something, but then I found this... notice anything missing?



From the looks of things down there, its been messed with before and i think there are some brackets missing that hold that smog thing and the coil pack.

 

Its hard to see but is the pigtail for the AC clutch there?

 

Ya, its still there, all of the harnesses seem to be okay in that area, I may have had the clutch connector unplugged when I took this pic, going to pick up a remain compressor with new clutch today, since its only $10 more than buying just the clutch assemble. And at least this way once its all back together and if it don't work then at least I can rule out the clutch and compressor.

BTW, those stripes look great on your car, I want to do some just like that but cant think of a color that will match my green.

 

Well, picked up a compressor and clutch combo and installed it. Very simple job, took about 45 minutes. Then an hour on the evac pump, another 30 minutes to make sure it holds the vacuum. Then 3 cans for 134a and some oil and now the A/C is ice cold and working like a champ.

Cant believe my buddy went a year without A/C when it was so easy to fix. Oh well, his lose, my gain.

 

Did you put some dye in there, just in case it leaks again you can trace where its coming from.

 

Ya, i put 1 can with the UV stuff and 2 cans of normal freon.

Out of curiosity, before I took anything apart, I put the gauges on the system and it was already holding about 100psi in the High/low sides. I know 100psi is really high for the one side, but its most like because the previous owner stuck another can or two in the system thinking the reason it stopped working might be because it was low. But it wasn't low. The system was all good, so if there is a new leak, it will most likely be at the compressor since that is the only thing I touched. But I did put the UV stuff in just incase.

When all was said and done, i put the low side at about 40psi and the high side was around 100-105psi.

 

He may of put an extra can in there thinking it will get colder but thats not good.