Hi, when my Jeep is running I get an intermittent squealing noise from the front of the engine. I was watching all the pulleys and saw that when the aircon clutch is out, it squeals and when it kicks in the compressor spins and the noise goes away.

Will I have to strip out the clutch and put in an extra shim, or is it possible to lube the clutch where it is? I really don't fancy pulling the radiator, trans cooler, etc to do this job - but the noise is very annoying!

thanks!!!
Morat

 

Hey, Morat, did you ever find a soultion to this? I'm having a similiar problem on my 04 GC.

 

Not so far, no :-(
With the shrouds off I might have enough room to get the clutch out with the belt on. Or maybe not. I'll give it a go this weekend if the weather holds.

 

Tap the face of the clutch plate with a small ball peen hammer to dislodge rust from the clutch. Blow it out with compressed air. Repeat until no more rust comes out.

Edit: Do not lube the clutch.

 

Do you mean I can tap the front of the clutch and blow the rust out of the back?...so I don't have to take it off?
That would be great!

 

Yes, give it a tap or two. It may surprize you what falls out. You won't be blowing the rust crap out the back, it will be coming out the side between the pulley and the clutch plate.

If your clutch has been installed for a long time it would surprise me if you don't get any rust out. The clutch is ate up anyway if you do get rust out. I did this on my clutch and got rust. But then I pulled my engine for rebuild so I pulled the front clutch plate off to see what it looked like...ate up bad; 137,000 miles and 14 years of service. I don't have tooling to replace the pulley and clutch plate so I will be going back on with a rebuilt compressor.