95 Astro AC Compressor sound

Within the past week, there has been a metal on metal sound coming from the AC compressor "pulley". It occurs intermitantly, mainly at low idle. High idle, driving down the road, it goes away.

What do you think? Is it the compressor clutch? the compressor clutch bearing? Would you just change the bearing or both the clutch/bearing?

How hard is it to do this work?

Any help and suggestions are very much appreciated.

1995 Astro CS; 4.3L V6

Thank you.

Greg

Well,
on my jeep the squeeking compressor turned out to be nothing. My mechanic had a lubricant he added to the system which solved the problem. My '89 astro compressor started squeeking last week and I thought I'd get away with the same $35 fix. No such luck.
The difference between the two was the jeep compressor was still working, and the ac was blowing cold air. The van was blowing cool air, but I could tell the freon level was low. Long story short the van compressor ground itself to death and injected metal flakes all through the system. Mucho denero to fix.
If your ac is still blowing cold air, I'd recommend trying the system lubricant first. I'm sorry to say I don't know the name of it. Some one here may know. The last time I serviced an AC system in my driveway it was an R12 system. Reclaiming the freon and recharging the system are the biggest hassles - requires special tools. Or you can do it the illegal way and just discharge that greenhouse gas to the atmosphere...but I doubt you want to do that. There's all kinds of ways to screw this up. My suggestion is bite the bullet and take it to a trusted mechanic if you have one.

i recently noticed the same problem on my 95 astro. the sound is a fast knocking sound. it scared me at first because i thought it was my engine. but its definately the ac. stop using your ac until you can get the compressor recharged with some oil. autozone sells some do it yourself kits that are pretty good and come complete with full instructions. they might even do it for you. ive actually seen people doing it in the parking lot of autozone ...ive seen some people doing very interesting things in that parking lot..haha anyways the 95 astro should have the new stuff (i forgot the name) in the system already and not the harmfull refridgerant of the past although im not sure exactly the year the industry stopped using it in assembly line cars. the guys at autozone should know. im gonna do mine today and ill let you know if it works and if it is easy enough to do yourself. lets keep our fingers crossed i still have at least another 2 months of ac use untill it gets cooler here in ct. good luck

i bought a recharge/oil kit with a guage from wal-mart. it didnt fix my problem and the pressure was actually a little high. im going to try just an oil kit and see what happens otherwise it looks like ive got to try a local shop and see whats up for sure. i hope my compressor isnt dead.

The lubricant that my mechanic put in my compressor is made by BG products I think. You can't buy it retail, but it only cost me $35 to have it put in. My Jeep has 153K miles on it with original compressor. It's good stuff.