Hi,

 

The compressor on my 72 went out in a blaze of glory today.  First the hose broke (this I know from hindsight, at the time I had no idea what the rushing wind noise was) and 10 miles later the compressor overheated and burnt out the clutch.  I pulled over and cut the belt to the compressor, but when I got back home the compressor still felt hot to the touch.  I don’t plan to replace the compressor until spring, so my question is does anything else have to be disconnected or is cutting the belt good enough?  Is it just hot because everything is the engine compartment gets hot?

 

 

If the pulley bearing on the compressor is not locked up, I'd suggest replacing the belt, and just leave the compressor unplugged. This will give more drive area on the water pump.
Of course, you can leave the belt off, too...
Nothing else needs to be done, except disconnecting the compressor connector.
If the compressor itself got hot enough to have a nuclear meltdown, it would likely be hot for quite a while, especially if you were driving the car.

Joel,

I wonder if the connection got blown off when it died.  The clutch is broken so I can't use the belt to help run the water pump, but thanks for that suggestion.  I know to do that if this ever happens again.  As far as the compressor connector, the wires don't seem to be connected to anything.  I have added a picture link to help explain the problem.  The freon line is broken (low part of the picture) and the compressor connector (at the left) appears to just be clipped to nothing.  Wires go in, but nothing comes out.  Am I missing something, because it is beginning to look like there really was a mini nuclear meltdown when this thing let go.  Should there be wires coming out of that clip?

The "connects to nothing" part is the thermal limit "fuse" for the compressor. It is supposed to kill the power to the compressor if the wiring gets too hot or the clutch magnet is drawing too many amps. It works in conjunction with the "super heat" switch on the rear of the compressor there, where the black wire in the pic is going. When the super heat switch blows, it grounds the thermal limit fuse, which blows/melts, and kills the voltage to the compressor clutch magnet. SO...your system may not be all that messed up, if the super heat did not go out. The clutch may have just took a dump, and the hose/line simply broke, possibly due to a vibration, or it may have been fatigued to start with...hard to say. If the compressor itself is NOT locked up, you may be ok just repairing/replacing the broken line, replacing the clutch, and evacuating/refilling the system.

Well that is good news!  The compressor itself does turn freely, but the clutch is totally FUBARed.  If I can just replace the clutch and refill the system that would be a whole lot nicer than what I was thinking I was going to have to do.  Thanks a lot for all your help.  As you can tell, I know nothing about how the A/C works.  I just know cold air comes out when I flip the switch. 

Oops, I forgot what I was looking for when I posted the picture.  So where is the compressor connector I need to disconnect?  Is it in the picture?

Not in the pic you posted. The connector is at the front of the compressor, just behind the pulley. Green wire and a black wire.
As a test of the thermal limit fuse, with the key on, and the A/C turned to 'High", check for 12v at the green wire at the compressor connector. If you have 12v there, then the thermal limit did not blow, which means the compressor did not get hot enough to pop the super heat switch. If there is NO voltage there, then the thermal limit prolly did blow due to a compressor malfunction, and the compressor will need to be replaced. The thermal limit fuse will normally look melted when it blows, but not always.
These tips are pretty "generic", in that there may be other things that I would want to verify, and actually touch, but it gives you a place to start.
If this were my vehicle, I would replace the clutch(if the electrics checked out otay), replace/repair the broken hard line, evacuate/recharge the system, and see how it works. If the compressor didn't work correctly at this point, then all I'm out is the freon, and a little time.
I actually need to do this on my '74, but I know for a fact my compressor is locked up. I'm planning on buying a reman compressor, and swapping all the guts out of it into my "original" compressor housing....gotta stay "original", donch know?!

I'll check it out.  As far as "original", that compressor is not the original one.  In fact, it's only been on the car 6 months.  Word of warning -- it was a reman compressor.