Help??? A/c

89 caprice, 350hp. while the car is running, I turn on the A/C the car stalls on the spot, What could be the problem? Can somebody help?

Remove belt and make sure the pulleys all roll freely - one could be locked up (bearing bad) but I've not seen this happen unless you need to pick up the RPMs of the engine to handle the added load of the A/C. There should be an idle solenoid that picks up the engine speed (once you raise the engine speed yourself using the pedal). This allows for the engine to die the solenoid is cut off dropping the idle back down to curb idle Yet still have the engine run with the A/C on.

Might be your ac compressor is locked up. Take off the belt, give it power and try to turn it by hand, you should be able to, if you cant its probably locked.

Might be your ac compressor is locked up. Take off the belt, give it power and try to turn it by hand, you should be able to, if you cant its probably locked.


:rolleyes: Thank you. That is the most important thing I forgot to mention . . . :banghead:

Might be your ac compressor is locked up. Take off the belt, give it power and try to turn it by hand, you should be able to, if you cant its probably locked.

It could be, but it seems like the belt would "squeal" if the compressor were locked up?

Also, the compressor may be hard to turn by hand. It takes a lot of effort to turn them...

I am inclined to beleive the idle soleniod. Does it die at "idle", moderate rpms, or both?