Thread: TD5 air conditioning compressor missing front plate on the pulley

I had this same issue when I bought my D2. Found aircon wasn't cold, went to local aircon place expecting a regas. They told me the clutch was not present, said it was an easy fix. They had a part on hand, said it was a common clutch. Had it replaced within the hour including being shimmed up. Cost me $110 fitted.
That was a place in Ferntree Gully VIC if it helps!

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I bet they had a laugh about that one.

Regards Philip A

A great link that may be useful for anyone else with this issue in the future:

Originally Posted by OffTrack

Land Rover DISCOVERY AC Compressor Clutch REPAIR KIT 2004 2005 A/C

Also available on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Land-Rover-D...item4abbd0a121

Also a good thread for pictures of it going wrong is http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...lutch-meltdown

I removed my fan belt today. Found a bolt that threaded into the shaft and then put a 3/8" ratchet onto the bolt head. I moved the ratchet in order to turn the shaft of the compressor. The shaft turned easily with no significant force required. I am hopefully therefore that the compressor is internally in good condition and only requires a new clutch cover (or entire clutch).

As such I have ordered one from Land Rover Discovery AC Compressor Clutch Repair KIT 2001 2002 2003 A C | eBay

Adam (the seller) has been kind enough to include a new bolt and clip in the kit for no extra cost (even though they are not usually included as part of the kit).

With any luck, rebuild the clutch and have a working air conditioner again without any regas required!

Just a follow up to this for anyone reading it in the future. When fitting the replacement kit parts I broke the nose of the shaft on the compressor - about 5mm from the end there is a groove to accommodate a circlip - due to the groove the metal is very thin and when I was pushing the new clutch on it must of not been completely straight (it's a tight space to work unless you remove the radiator/intercooler or the compressor from the vehicle) and this gave way at the groove part - the end result being that I could still reassemble, but without the circlip to hold in place/secure.

I ended up fitting a second hand compressor.

So it's been a bit over a year now since this and it's happened again!




Note that one of the shim spacer washers has stayed there!

This time I found the front plate:




But it's a write off:




It's caught the engine fans idler pulley on the way down and grooved that and taken the tip of the corners off the fan blades:




Thankfully I had a spare replacement front plate and other components on the shelf from last year. The internal shaft in the compressor is still moving and so I assumed it was still functional. I reassembled, used Loctite Medium Strength (blue) Thread Locker on the bolt and shimmed it out. It seems to work, the air conditioner cut in and out but then the current temperature is 13*C and cooling (I can see snow on the top of the mountain from my house at the moment) so it's probably didn't need the air-condition for cooling!
I also removed the idler pulley and set it up in the drill press to spin it while I sanded it smooth again:

You are a hard man on gear! Not something that you want happening all the time! That plate could do some serious damage depending on how it fell and what it hit. Hopefully the locktight will hold the litte sod.
Cheers Scott

Originally Posted by schuy1

You are a hard man on gear! Not something that you want happening all the time! That plate could do some serious damage depending on how it fell and what it hit. Hopefully the locktight will hold the litte sod.

It would seem so! But the thing is that being in Tasmania I barely use the air-conditioner - most of the time I leave it on Economy mode to stop the air con cutting in and robbing engine power and so I don't get chilly air blasted at me!
I'm hoping it's just bad luck as a result of using a second hand used replacement part and will be fine now! See what happens!

I kind of wish I used High Strength thread locker now though rather than the medium.