grinding and smoking.

[BraindG]

Guys,

Just drove up to Perth, arrived here with the sound of grinding and loads of smoking making its way out from the air con pump.

Question.

Can I somehow deactivate the wheel/cog so that it freewheels and i can drive home?

Cheers

[Nick Mann]

You can just take the belt off. Don't do lots of slow speed manouvering though!

I take it turning the air con off doesn't release the clutch in the pump?

[Davezj]

in order of difficulty,

1. turn the air con off. (but you have probably tried that barry)

2. if you can do without the power steer just take the belt off.

when the engine is running does the air con pump pulley end turn with the aircan turned off. if so then there is a problem with the magnetic clutch, which is staying on when it shouldn't.
there is an electrical connection to the pump, disconnect this and it should turn the magnetic clutch off, or on all the time. if you are lucky it will turn it off and the pulley will spin freely without driving the pump.


EDIT:- Beat me to it nick.

[Kieran]

And Dave beat me to the trick of pulling the electrical connectors off of the aircon pump! :)

[Davezj]

there will also be a sensor some where on the high pressure air con coolant line that give the pump the hysteresis signal to turn on to pump pressure up and to stop when it get too high and turn the pump off, then on then off.

this connector is good one to use when testing if the air con compressor is working if it doesn't switch on with the dash air con switch. e.g. you short out the 2 contact on the cable and this forces the magnetic clutch on and disconnect switches off.
but i am not sure where it is on the VR4, i had to use it on the jeep as i had a bit of leak from the aircon system in that. so i used it to test the compressor, and another time when i hadn't used the air can all winter and the magnetic clutch had seized up, so i used the on, off, on, off, of the switching and wd40 to free it up. it was fine after that.
Dave goes on a tangent again!

[BraindG]

Cool, cheers Dave, everyone.

Ive gone and had a fiddle, the plugs wereunplugged and when i started thecar it was grinding more than ever..... think i've bollox'd the clutch..

Got a couple options, 1) get AA to relay car down and ill go in car with Dad. 2) remove belt and drive down without power steering, option 2 will prob be the one we go for...

Thanks everyone forquick responses once again

[Davezj]

you could try wd40 on the magnetic clutch bit to see if makes a difference. just a thought.

could you try rerouting the ps belt. missing out the air con pump, either run the ps belt rounr the bottom of the tensioner pulley and use the tensioner pulley in the opposit direction or if you have a spare alternator belt try that as it is shorter than the ps belt and again miss out the aircon pump and tension as normal. just another thought.

i should stop now they are getting a bit clutching at straws.

[BraindG]

I got home :) - once i was on the motorway things were groovey.

Ill start looking at the workshop manual later today to see if its possible to repair without removing the whole aircon unit from the car. (can use spare from Mauve)

[Turbo_Steve]

Put another 5-10psi in the front tyres to make it easier to park.

[The Vee]

Check your PAS oil level. If you've used any more than just a slight lock it will back pressure the oil and force it out the reservoir when the belt is off.