before I take it to a pro, I buy the can from WalMart with the hose and guage and hook it up myself. You can check pressure and see if it will take any freon.

 

It will always take freon because the Walmart freon can is pressurized AND it's connected to the suction side of the compressor. A pro will be looking at both low and high pressure, the Walmart gauge won't, so the pro knows exactly the right amount of freon. Also, R134a systems are very sensitive to the correct amount of oil, a little too much oil, bad cooling performance, too little oil, time for a new compressor.

 

well I must be a pro myself then lmfao, static and compressor readings are right on, I found how to test the low pressure sensor, well bypass it, and if you bypass it by taking the terminal off of it and jumping both sides of the terminal one of two things should happen.

it will come on and engage the compressor, or not work. Not working leads to most likley compressor issues (or other control issues).

working says it's low on freon or a bad low pressure switch.

after knowing my pressures are good, and the unit kicked on after the bypass, I'm pretty sure it's the low pressure sensor dealio. It still blows ice cold and everything is quiet and in good shape. Even worked normal for a while after screwing with it all.....freon being low should also have warning signs before going out....it should cycle often, and blow at least semi warm....... time to replace that sensor and get back to this thread after I get one and do so. Don't be so fast to jump to a shop self diagnosing even can save cash..knowing what's wrong before it goes in saves you labor time.

 

hit up www.jeepair.com for your parts! they are great!!!

 

well good news guys, I ordered that switch (ac clutch cycle switch I guess is the tech. Name) at advance auto, costed about 20$...part number 20923, if anyone is interested, took me literally less than 3 mins to change and guess what? The compressor is now kicking on and off and my ac is working like a dream again.

don't let new things intimidate you into letting someone else work on your rig if you usually handle things, do what you can and test what you can, just stay within the limits of knowing your not gonna break anything, and do your research....i can't stress that part enough. This applies to everything, do your research, test things from easy to hard, and cheap to expensive, it works more often than not.

 

Somebody posted a thread asking what the correct a/c high and low pressures were ('97 XJ, IIRC). Mind sharing your pressure readings and at what ambient?

 

at about 75-80 degrees the static on the low was in the round about of 100, give or take a few, the engine compartment temp made it vary, and with the compressor on it was in between 32 and like 40 again varied upon comparyment temp, this was on the low pressure side...i had the good readings there and decided to test controls before worrying about high pressures as the ac had worked fine up until that day and I could still get cold air. On a side note the switch I replaced is simplisticly a pressure activated solenoid....in case anyone was curious lol