air conditioner

I have a 2000 dodge ram 1500 6 cylinder. the other day on my way home the ac stop cooling and then a few minutes later it started cooling again. The fan is still blowing but just cool air not cold. when it comes back on it blows real cold. had it checked out and they are telling me that i have to replace the whole unit because they cant find just the clutch. can someone tell me what might be causing this. The mechanic didnt give me any great detail as to what the problem is. thanks

I had this same problem with my '95 dodge ram. I ended up picking up a accumilator, ac compressor and orfice for $290 at autozone with a one year warranty. You can replace the compressor yourself if you really wanted to - I did but I would recommend picking up gaskets for the compressor ($6.99 at autozone - they wouldn't sell me just the gaskets). I took it to a local shop and had them vacuum out the system and put 2 pounds of r134 in for $75