Friday night I was coming from visiting a friend in Hollywood Beach and the train tracks I was about to cross lit up and the arms came down like Mr. Miyagi kicking ass. I stepped on the brakes as not to end as a Youtube video and waited for the passenger commuter to go by.

I almost immediately noticed something was wrong with the Air Conditioner.  Old hot weather fans know to fear the sudden smell of humidity coming from the vents knowing that it follows immediately by cool air transitioning to warm air.

And that is what happened. The A/C of my truck went kaput.

The rest of the 40 minute trip was me mostly cursing in four languages and developing a less-than healthy blood pressure reading. This is an old truck, and any AC repair will probably cost about half of the selling price of it.

On Saturday, I did the obligatory searches online including YouTube (Some scary “mechanics” in there) and the first thing I did was to check if I had gas which it did. Next I made sure the fuse and relay were working: they were. But with Tropical storm Philip starting to dump copious amounts of rain and not having a garage, I had to suspend activities. This morning, I grabbed my tool box, stepped outside in the very nice 72 degree weather and proceeded to check the compressor as that was the most probable cause of my AC failure. I shone the light on the thing and I saw this:

Now, I know I am not the sharpest tool in the car mechanics toolbox, but after seeing them videos, something told me there was something wrong.

The frigging clutch plate fell off…shit! Are you kidding me?

Being a Sunday where the people who were not sleeping late were going to church, I refrained from letting another operatic expression of multilingual displeasure at full volume. I resigned myself to go back online and see if I could find the missing part(s) and how much they would set me back. For giggles, I aimed the light down…

Yup, that’s the clutch plate.  Embedded between some metal part and a hose.  It somehow fell off the compressor, got stuck and did not fall off for some 40 miles of South Florida roads including the four asshole bumps out HOA installed in our streets.

I feel a bit better and a bit foolish. All in all it could have been worse. Now I have to figure out what is missing besides the bolt (You know it ain’t that easy), buy it and install it.

Or at least hope that is all I have to do.

So dear readers, if you have knowledge of AC compressors for Ford Explorer Sport Trac and feel like helping with info, I’ll appreciate it.