Is My Compressor shot?

[C man]

My air stop working yesterday. Got some gauges to day and got a static (compressor not running) reading of 53 psi on the low side and 430 psi on the high side. From my understanding the static pressure corelates with the ambeint tempture wich was 92 degrees at the time and should be equal on both sides.

Does this mean my orffice tube is blocked and the compresser has grenaded and clogged the orffice tube up?

[Smitty's Buick]

430 PSI is off the charts for both R12 and R134a. You definitely have a problem on your hands. At 92*F you should have more like 110 - 120 PSI based on standard P-T data.

[C man]

Sorry I read the gages wrong. The actual static pressure was more around 155 psi for the high side. I released the R134A and unhooked the orifice tube line since I didn't have anything to loose at that point. Thought it would be clogged but it was ok. It had some Derbies in the orifice tube but nothing suggesting a catastrophic failure like the firs time I replaced the compressor.

I think that the a/c clutch is bad and shorted out or maybe the high pressure switch on a/c compressor since it was reading normal when it should have been reading high and it wasn't low on refrigerant. I didn't have any jumper wire to test the coil and I didn't think to check to see if clutch was shorted out using a Ohmmeter, the heat index was 106 and I was in direct sun, got a little short in the brain department . BTW what should the resistance read?

Either way I'll ride the heat out till it cools down in September and install a new compressor in the spring time. I had a Factory Air (4 seasons) brand compressor it was only $199 and seems to have lasted 2 years and 4 months and 30k miles. Anyone no of a decent brand A/C compressor that won't = the value of my car?