[z28barnett]

have a bad bearing in the A/C pulley. The system works fine but has a wine that sounds like a blower or a gear drive cam.

The clutch is not dragging and the sound is roughly halfed when I turn on the A/C and at its worst when it is off. My thought is the bearing in the pulley spins all of the time and with the clutch pulled in it side loads the bearing to quite it down some. I can hear the noise when turning the pulley by hand.

I have looked up the procedure in the GM shop manual. The clutch plate has to be pulled with a special tool. Then another tool is used to lock into the center of the pulley and pull the pulley off of the compressor shaft.

They list another set of tools to install the bearing and stake it in place and finally another tool to reinstall the pulley on the compressor.

They say that this can be done on the car without opening the A/C system.

Prices for the parts:

Bearing: $20.00

Tools: Not sure

Compressor with shippping: (New GM) $350

Receiver Dryer: (New GM) $50

New Clutch Pulley assembly: $110

My questions:

1) Has anyone done this job, are the special tools needed and where do you get them?

2). Is a functional 90K miles A/C compressor ready to be replaced anyway?

3). What do you think would be the most cost effective way to proceed?

Thanks

Z28

[Ojustracing]

I do this stuff all the time. Depending on how bad the pulley bearing is you might need more parts. Most ones I do need outer clutch and the pulley. Cars that have been driven to far might need a coil too. In cases where they really didnt pay attention it required compressor replacment where the bearing siezed and took the snout of the compressor out. Tools needed would be a ac clutch puller(Snap-on/equiv) depending on how stuck the pulley is it might slip off, need a little love tap or they do make a ac pulley puller. Its not that bad for a DIY if the compressor can stay on car.

One question is that you say the noise goes changes once the ac is turned on? Does it feel like the the clutch is dragging any bit. I've had alot of the Gm clutch have a noise( metal Scraping type noise) when the ac clutch starts to become warped and drag on the pulley which creates alot of heat!!. But when you turn the ac on it goes away. If you catch it soon enough and it the noise I think it is, you could just be able to do the ac clutch, anything else its going to need both. Let me know if you need anything else. John