A/C Compressor Clutch wont kick on!

96 Tacoma 3.4

I put a new ac compressor in my truck and clutch wouldnt kick on so I jumped the ac pressure switch on the evap box and the clutch kicked in and i was able to recharge my system to the green.

Ac blew cold for a few days when driving home the other day the ac just stopped blowing cold. I was sad cuz its HOT af in hawaii right now.

Got home and checked Low pressure with freon gauge and can and it just instantly shot to the red. so watched some vids and it said to add freon till compressor turns on. The ac system wouldnt take anymore freon so i was confused

so i tried to jump the ac pressure switch like the first time to recharge the system but this time the clutch didnt engage.

I checked AC fuse and its good. I tried spinning the compressor clutch by hand and it spins freely.

I was thinking I might have broke my ac pressure switch by jumping it cuz instead of leaving the pressure switch connector with the jumper wire unplugged i plugged it back in with the jumper wire. May i have broken the pressure switch that way?

Also could i have blown my AC amplifier trying to jump the pressure switch that way? The picture is how my AC amplifier looks like right now.

Any help would be super appreciated. I need my AC right now im dyingg.

 

These two look like a problem.

 

The rusted one forsure. How come the other one u circled? Just want to know im curious.

Also my AC is working now. I put some freon in till 40psi but clutch didnt engage. left it alone went to dinner and came back home and it was bugging me that i couldn't fix the ac. tried to check psi again so i turned my ac on and the clutch was engaged so i put freon in till 30psi but it wouldnt go over 30 so im confused on that. but my AC was blowing cold ‍♂️ gonna check the psi in the morning to see if it leaked.

Also may out temperature mean anything while recharging my system? the temperature was 63° outside. o read something about recharging AC and the temperature outside but idk

 

The smaller one has some green looking corossion on one end.

 

Temp can effect it but it needs to be lower then 63 to effect it. Are you trying to charge with a can and hose setup like autozone sells?

 

For future repairs heres a link to a service manual. https://charm.li/Toyota Truck/1996/Tacoma 4WD V6-3.4L (5VZ-FE)/

 

So today i changed the the expansion valve and the ac pressure switch. before that like an hour earlier i was driving and i was hearing a noise and it was my compressor clutch engaging but no cold air. got home and my clutch was cycling on and off but still no cold air. then i changed the stuff i mentioned i changed clutch wasnt engaging till i recharged the system till 35psi and the clutch was on and ac was blowing cold. let my truck sit for like 30 mins then left to drive home and clutch wasnt engaging and ac wasnt blowing cold. im confused and im leaning heavily on the ac amplifer which i believe i toasted it trying to jump the pressure switch from before. any thoughts on this matter?

 

Did you evacuate the system before recharging it?

 

indeed i did

 

i forgot to mention when i jumped the ac pressure switch i jumped it from the back of the connector and plugged it back into the ac pressure switch. and ac worked for couple days. then it stopped working and i wasnt able to jump the compressor again through the ac pressure switch connector. do u think leaving the jumper cable on the pressure switch connector while having it plugged in broke my ac amplifier? while driving the jumper came out and ac still worked till it didnt the next day.

 

Jumper shouldn't have hurt the switch but the jumper wire grounding out may have. Did it hold a vacumm?

 

How would i know if it held a vacumm? I mean that day the ac was blowing cold and then the jumper came out so i took the wire out and the ac still engaged and then the next day ac clutch stopped engaging. It was weird cuz these pst couple days the clutch would sometimes engage and sometimes wouldnt.

 

If you evacuted system you'd have to have gauges and a vacumm pump.

 

If you want a positive resolution that doesn't involve carpet bombing with parts, I highly recommend a proper manifold gauge set. Not just the low pressure charge hose the "top up" kits come with.

At this point I would get a baseline by "recovering" whats in the system... you don't need to disclose to us how you recover it... we have an idea.

Get a vacuum pump and let it suck the system down for 30-45 mins then close the taps at the manifold and let it sit for 30 mins again. If your vacuum is within 1"hg maybe 2"hg from where you left it then you have no leaks that will be found.

Next step is acquire a can tap to allow connecting actual 134A to your manifold gauge.. not that charge hose. Purge your yellow line by tapping the can then lightly unscrewing the yellow hose until you get refrigerant then tighten it back up at the gauge right away (repeat that step everytime you change cans). Open your low pressure side(blue) and let it flow into the system.

Next, start your car and with only the low pressure side open see if it will draw in the rest of the can. I hold the can upside down but it's warm enough down there where that's not a concern. If your clutch doesn't cycle on then look into your electrical side. If possible I would leave the gauges and stuff connected to avoid contamination and wasting the refrigerant.

Once you get the electrical side diag'd and the clutch will engage on it's own, add the appropriate amount of refrigerant as detailed on a sticker under your hood or that service manual posted above.

I don't know these trucks and have never worked on their a/c systems but i'd say that when everything is working proper with the fan on bust, full cold and recirc on and the system has stabilized by cycling a few times, you'll see the compressor cut out around 20psi and the high side between 150-190psi with the engine at idle. If the high side is lower than 150psi you're probably still fine but if the high side is higher than 270psi then make sure your condensor fins aren't are folded over and your fan clutch works properly.

You'll have cool air but it may not be a freezer because if the system was not vacuumed before the drier might be saturated with moisture still and if the compressor wasn't "balanced" before installation, the system could have too much oil in it now to cool as efficiently as it should.

A/C work isn't hard but I often suggest leaving it to the professionals as it has a lot of variables and little things to do for a successful repair