'72 compressor clutch gap

[Tom L.]

Good morning, Having a little problem with my a/c clutch. When hot under the hood the clutch starts to slip, squeel and smoke under the hood, not good. When I turn the a/c off the clutch disengages and everything spions smoothly, no issues. The compressor does spin by hand so I suspect that the compressor itself is OK.

What I did find, and in hindsight I remember setting it this way, was that the gap on my clutch is uneven. When I went through the system several years ago I went to set the gap on the clutch, I believe it should be around .025, I couldn't get there all around so I set it so the closest gap was about .018 and the widest a whopping .048. It worked fine for years until recently. While inspecting it I did notice some cracking in the rubber on the clutch itself, not sure if that's the reason for the uneven gap or not.

Was thinking of just setting the gap closer to maybe .008-.010 so that the larger gap closes to about .038. Any other thoughts?

[Terry M.]

Re: '72 compressor clutch gap

Bite the bullet and replace the clutch. I am not sure where to get a replacement any more for the A6. That might be an issue, but start your search now. Sooner or later -- most likely sooner -- the clutch will totally fail.

[Tom L.]

Re: '72 compressor clutch gap

I looked into that and that was going to be a followup question. All I could find were Four Seasons units and the description on the few sites I looked at used words like "rebuilt", "reconditioned" and "new" on the same page. Very vague. That's why I'm here : )

[Leonard M.]

Re: '72 compressor clutch gap

A few years back I had the same symtoms as you mention, but more problems. I was attempting to get the A/C system on my 72 454 car working. The system was open for a number of years and I had a frozen POA valve among other things. When I did get all the system issues repaired, I had the slipping,squeeling A/C belt.
I originally blamed the clutch, but it was a worn, slippng WP/tensioner belt. I found that under load, with the clutch engaged, both belts along with a good tensioner are needed to spin the compressor without slipping.

[Tom L.]

Re: '72 compressor clutch gap

Been there, done that. It's not the belt. It's the clutch itself but thanks anyway

[Peter M.]

Re: '72 compressor clutch gap

Tom,
My shop manual shows the gap as between .022 and .057".
There would appear to be several N.O.S. clutch plates for sale on line.#5914719.
Kind regards

[Tom L.]

Re: '72 compressor clutch gap

Pete, when I saw your respose on the gap, which I'm in the range all around, it made me think.... In another thread I was chasing a voltage drop issue at the starter. Turned out that the voltage drop problem was the cause of my clutch problem. It was the wire's connection at the positive side of the battery. I chased a few other gremlins and got those taken care of and after that I started the car and the clutch no pulls in and holds. Thanks for all the input guys! Enjoy the weekend!!