On the passenger side near the firewall sits your accumulator. It is a black canister with green connector plugged into it with the ac lines running through it. You pull the connector and stick a paper clip in the connector to jumper/short the connection. Don't be afraid, this is the same thing that the switch does when the pressure increases. You will hear or should hear your compressor kick on.

I am no fan of replacing parts as a form or troublshooting, but in this situation if you don't have a set of gauges, tossing in a $14 part isn't really a big deal. A can of refrigerant will cost about the same.

 

I'd have to buy the whole kit, which I will do anyway, but thanks for the info.

 

I agree with HeyYou. Check the system pressure. My compressor was cycling on and off and the pressure was low.

 

My compressor won't kick in at all... period. I was told that if the pressure is low enough that it won't. Is this true? This is why I wanted to jump it to see if I could get it to go for a second before buying a kit.

 

The switch on the receiver/dryer is only two terminals, turn the a/c on, put a jumper wire across the connector for the switch, and see if the compressor runs.

 

I jumped it and the clutch kicked in. Now just to go get some refrigerant.

 

I bypassed the clutch cycling switch with a paperclip per the Haynes manual which made the clutch run constantly, this gave me an accurate reading of pressure and allowed me to fill it up to the proper R-134 level. Once I did that I reconnected the plug to the switch and it runs just fine now, no cycling and very cold air.

Looks like it was low coolant and even though I filled it the clutch kept cycling and it didn't take enough, it would show that it had about 40 (on)/100 (off) psi but when I finally bypassed the switch it was actually less then 20 psi.

So no new parts and I finished off the can of R-134 that I had in the truck.