1997 2.2L A/C help

[3echo9]

Need some help..

A friend has a Cavalier that stopped cooling this summer. The car has roughly 85,000 (grandmas hand me down).

I hooked up gauges and found the low side to be sitting at 20psi and high side to about 5psi.

Visual inspection did not show any apparent oil leakage at the compressor. One thing I did find was what looked like a belt had shredded and gotten wedged behind the flywheel and the compressor body.

The clutch moves freely (didn't check the clutch before removing the debris) and I can hear fluid moving through the system.

Can anyone tell me if/how I can jump the compressor to see if the clutch will kick in?

Thanks

[DeltaP]

If the compressor doesnt engage and you said you found the remnants of a broken belt wrapped behind the clutch I'd check the clutch coil lead in wires and the a/c harness going to the clutch. The wiring might be broken. But if you're reading the guages correctly its out of refrigerant and you've got a leak and maybe a locked up compressor. I've never heard fluid in a system by turning the clutch. You are probably hearing a bad bearing!

[Tech II]

You basically have no freon in the system......

[brcidd]

You don't jumper 3 wire transducers-- your system will operate when it has 47 psi or more pressure in system- you have barely any refrigerant (freon is the trade name for the old refrigerant R-12 btw) in the system- and odds are great you have a shaft seal leak in compressor-

[3echo9]

I'm guessing the shaft seal is the culprit too. I went ahead and put a can of sealer/refrigerant in the system. I was happy to see that the system kicked in and cooled down to a constant 57 degrees F.

We'll keep an eye on it and if/when it no longer cools I'll replace the shaft seal now that I know the compressor is good.