As most early P38A owners will know, the air con clutch would occasionally not engage and eventually it slips and wears to the point where it rarely engages.
An early fix was to remove a shim behind the clutch but this only deferred the problem.
LR came up with a mod. kit, the aircon Compressor Link Harness, to increase the applied voltage to the compressor clutch:
I removed the shim in mine about 7 years ago, and fitted the link harness about 3-4 years ago, and this cured the problem - I thought.
However, yesterday the compressor clutch failed to engage once more. The clutch had worn even more and the air gap was too great.
Following a suggestion from Scouse, I pulled the clutch off today, put it in the lathe, and machined off 25 thou from the back of the clutch spigot. That reduced the air gap back to within spec (0.35-0.65mm) and all is well once more.
When I pulled the clutch off, I found it had been wearing unevenly so I'll keep an eye out for another one (secondhand from a failed compressor).
Note the wear at the lower left:
The bit I machined down:
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