Since I purchased this vehicle 1 year ago, the A/C has been stuck on. In the tropical climate I live in, its not so bad. However, some days its cool enough not to need A/C. I looked in the FSM and found the location of the "Magnetic Clutch Relay" and I unplugged it. No change. I turned off the A/C light, No change. I do not have any rear air system what so ever. I am not using the defroster and this is the 1996 with a mechanical style levers. Heater is bypass, because tropical climate, so there is no temperature adjusting.

Even if I turn the whole system off, I know the compressor is still engaged because after a while I feel ice cold air creeping through the vents even with the fan off. The magnetic clutch relay has the following part number: 88650-35060 which comes up as AMPLIFIER ASSY, COOLER STABILIZER. So is it a relay or an amplifier? I also pulled the 10A fuse labeled A/C and it was blown. Swapped it with the neighboring 10A fuse labeled "RR HTR" and it blew as soon as I started it. I have a feeling this 10A fuse powers the A/C button on the dash. Up until yesterday that button was still lighting up but still had no effect on the A/C system. So is there another relay somewhere? Why is the A/C fuse blowing instantly? I pretty sure the magnetic clutch is seized.

Sounds like the clutch magnet fried and shorted to ground.

Bingo. If the AC clutch relay is removed, there is no power to the AC clutch. Pull the belt and see if the pulley free-spins or is locked to the AC compressor. I believe you can get the AC clutch separately for the repair.

-Charlie

http://tacoma.site40.net/4Runner_96-.../camc/disa.pdf

http://tacoma.site40.net/4Runner_96-.../camc/reas.pdf

The stator referred to is part of the clutch. The other two parts are the hub and the rotor (pulley). You don't need to pull the belt to diagnose. Unplug the clutch wire, and if the center (hub) part rotates with the outside (the rotor/pulley), your clutch is locked up. You'll have to break it down to see if you need all three parts, or just one or two.

Thanks for the info. As soon as Im able to remove the skid plate, I will have a closer look at it.


*Edit* I looked up the price of the clutch and stator. Holy crap! the OEM parts are expensive. Are there any good aftermarket options? All I can seem to find is shady ebay stuff and Autozone brands I know nothing about. I definitely dont want to replace the entire compressor, just the necessary parts.

You don't have to remove the skid to see the clutch spinning on the compressor.

Here's one place that has the clutch. I personally have never replaced just a clutch so I'm not sure if there's anything else needed.

Compressor Works A/C Clutch 667598 - Read Reviews on Compressor Works #667598

Damn. If that's how it looks, I threw away a couple of good used clutch packs
(from another make). It also uses the 'denso 10p(a)15 compressor. I do still
have the pulley removal tool :-)

I havent had a chance to remove the skid plate yet since the 2 recessed bolt heads are stripped . I have decided to replace the Clutch, Rotor, and magnet and leave the compressor in place. From what I can tell there should be enough room since almost everything is attached to the center anyway. So OEM parts are going to cost $450 if I buy all three. *Spoiler Alert* that is not going to happen. So my remaining choices are to buy one of those kits from Ebay, Amazon, Autozone that has the aforementioned components, or look into buying a re-manufactured unit and stealing the parts from that. If my compressor ever fails, I would have a unit ready to go.

Some Examples:

This one is a part kit where the magnet has some sort of plug. I dont know if its the right plug. I have noticed a couple different quality of magnets. In my opnion the higher quality magnets are fully encased in metal where as the lower quality magnets have some kind of epoxy with an open end cap.

NEW AC COMPRESSOR CLUTCH 1930 FIT 98 99 00 01 02 Toyota 4Runner V6 3.4L | eBay

Here is an Ebay remanufactured unit.

96-02 TOYOTA 4RUNNER V6L (3.4L) USA REMAN. A/C COMPRESSOR + NEW KITS W/ WRTY | eBay

And @JRZEE2000TR4LTD linked me this autozone example. It appears to me to have one of the higher quality looking magnets. As well has a plug instead of a bare wire that requires soldering.

Compressor Works A/C Clutch 667598 - Read Reviews on Compressor Works #667598

What do you guys think? If I get the reman unit, I feel that maybe the parts im looking for may be lower quality to balance out the cost of the overall unit. Although the example I posted does say its a reman nippodenso.

Rock Auto has a clutch kit for $57 with a year guarantee.

Check your local Toyota dealers website. Seems like they're discounting a lot of older 4runner parts. I just picked up a new oem (Denso) radiator for $111.00 , drop shipped with no shipping charge to the dealers parts dept. Filters & general maintenance stuff dirt cheap too!

Its been quite a while since posting on this thread. I almost forgot it existed. I have recently started back where I left off with the A/C. Today I went through the wonderful task of having to pull the radiator in order to get my snap ring pliers to fit. I finally got everything swapped over from my donor compressor. I had to use the shim from the donor compressor as mine is missing in action. I think it may be too big but the clutch looked damn close to being less than 0.5mm from the pulley. The other fun bit is that I had to spliced the ground for the new magnet to old ground wire. Those screws are on extremely tight. How do I know if the magnet is working? If I have to source new shims I will either have to import them or try to use regular washers or something.

So I went to the "Island Toyota" place and they don't stock the A/C shims. Then I went to the hardware store and they had something usable that was half the thickness of the current shim. With the thin washer on, the clutch is just barely scraping the pulley. I believe this is essentially as close as the clutch could possibly get to the pulley with out being locked to it. Still no go on A/C which suggests to me that the magnet is not turning on. Back to the electrical diagrams I suppose.

I just lived a similar nightmare...

2000 limited SleepyDad build

so I think if I remember correctly the electrical connection is just 1 wire? and if it has power the clutch should lock up? pretty sure.

anyway I tested mine by turning on the AC in ACC key position and it locked up the cluth, this was before I put the belt on.

FSM page on this. hope it helps?



note: when I ordered the shim kit for some reason they sent me 3x of them... I would just run them over but your kind of out there.

That line gave me a pretty good laugh. Im going to try grounding it to the body somewhere or maybe directly to the battery just to prove it works. I kind of wish I hadn't left my multi meter in the states.

Turns out it was a bad ground. I am now enjoying the sweet, rewarding, low on freon, fruits of my labors. It only took a year to fix. I embarrassingly ghetto rigged a wire from the compressor to igniter bracket with a zip tie. Its apparently really difficult to twist wires in a cramped space at an awkward angle with one hand. Ill fix the bad wiring and top up the freon later, it works and that's all I care about at the moment.