Hi all, AC compressor finally broke down. Had it repaired two yrs. ago and was told then I needed a new one so...it's time. Here's my question: I am thinking of getting rid of AC. I bought a non-AC belt without looking at diagram and after looking at it, I see that I am missing an idler pulley. I see threads where I could put it but...not sure what to put there. Do I need to purchase the "bypass" pulley from the local auto store to accomplish this or is there another oem idler pulley that I could put there and not even have to remove compressor. That is my dream! If I use the "bypass" pulley, I will need to remove the existing ac compressor.
Any help would be appreciated. Probably will replace compressor but this will buy some time and keep my wife out of my truck when she needs to....do stuff!

 

As long as the AC compressor clutch isn't seized you don't need to replace it. The bypass pully was just a frewheeling pully that bolts in place of the AC compressor for the base model S-series trucks that came without factory AC. You could probably get one from a wrecker or a Pick-n-Pull type place for $10 if you really want to remove the AC compressor.

In my opinion, unless the AC clutch is seized it won't do much to replace it with the bypass pully. When the AC isn't on the AC pully just freewheels and has no resistance, which would be the same as the non-AC pully.

 

My AC seized on me a while back in my '97. I bought an idle pulley from autozone for $10 and bolted it to the the provision on the head, just under the compressor. I removed my compressor completely, so I cannot guaranteed it will work with the compressor in place.

 

^ This. You already have a bypass pulley installed. It lust looks a lot like a broken ac compressor.

I took all the ac stuff off my '73 a long time ago cause it didn't work, and I lived only two miles from where I worked, and I was young and dumb. Now, I wish I had left it intact. It would be a lot easier to fix it with everything still there.

 

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I love this site but unfortunately (or selfishly?) only come here when I have Blazer problems that I can't solve myself!
But the compressor clutch, although it isn't froze up, it is burnt up. I first noticed it when my wife came home and I smelled smoke. Opened the hood and there was pretty serious smoke coming out of the front of the compressor. Don't you hate the moment before you open the hood that you've got smoke coming out from under? Who knows what you'll find.
And when you turn the AC on, the smoke really pours out, plus spitting out lil' chunks of burning rubber. May have something to do with me putting refrigerant in a coupla' weeks back, I dunno. I slightly overcharged it because there wasn't much cooling going on at what the meter attached to the refrigerant bottle said was the proper charge.
I was in a hurry y'day before work and wanted to get my question posted or else I'da made it more clear the condition of my existing compressor and clutch/pulley.

 

Forgot to say, what doesn't make sense to me is that she didn't have the AC on while driving home. Had the windows down.

 

Well then you might have an AC clutch that's dying. I believe that you can just replace the clutch, or the whole AC compressor. If you do want to pull the compressor and put in the simple factory non-AC pully you can do that too, but you will need a different length fan belt. I don't know the length difference, but your local parts guy should be able to look it up for you.

 

Looks like I'm just going to go and have a new compressor installed. That includes accum. and orifice so that warranty is valid. Was thinking of either they putting in a used one or myself doing that but decided that if I was going to go that far, why cut corners? Especially on a system as temporamental and sensitive as a vehicle ac unit. Read where the accumulator is only good for so many years or miles and this is a 14 yr old with 180K mi so...whatcha gonna do?