Ac clutch or wore out belt.?

[Jefferd]

So ive had my truck for about 7 years.. and ive lived with it like this for the same amount of time.. when u turn on the ac and the clutch engages it squeals awful... when u pat the gas it goes away and blows cold ... like great. Then when u come to a redlight it does it again.. so i turn off the ac until i take off again... is the clutch jus trying to die or is it something else... it blows great except for the squeal on starting it .

Truck is a 4.7

 

[wgreggking]

First thing I would do is since its seven yrs, change the belt and tensioner assembly in including the idler. get a gates green belt. look it up on Rockauto

 

[turkeybird56]

You honestly put up with this for 7 years, wow.... Either bad tensioner, bad idler pulley or Bad AC pulley (may or may not be clutches on AC)(there may be another alignment pulley in there also, been a long time since I looked at anything but a 5.7). IF it ONLY does it when U turn on AC at idle, and not any other time when engine under a load, driving real hard, fast etc my bet would be AC clutches, but this is just pure Internet Guessnosis. Heck, get it professionally checked and fixed.

DITTO ABOVE also and on the Gates Belt. The other 2 parts not hard to change, just go slow, do not snap anything (lube all nuts/bolts with like WD 40 and let set in before you try and loosen, etc, been on there long time), and watch them knuckle busters, lol.