"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
...


Ducati produces beautifully made motorcycles that are super fast,
handle
well, and are reliable. I've had Honda and Kawasaki motorcycles and
have
found their reliability no different than "The Duc."

---------------------------------

I think the reliability of all modern vehicles .... cars, trucks,
motorcycles and even boats .... are vastly improved over the ones
produced 20 or 30 years ago. Only problem is, they have become so
complex that they can't usually be worked on by us "shade tree
mechanics" of yesterday.

I just bought a 2002 Saturn for a local "kick around" car. It's
about as basic as you can get but the price was right and it's in
amazingly good condition.
Looks new ... even the interior is spotless.

But, the AC didn't work. Popping the hood I noticed that the clutch
on the AC compressor wasn't pulling in. I had a old Pontiac LeMans
(probably a '65 or thereabouts) years ago in Puerto Rico that had the
same problem. Something was messed up in the controls that engaged
the clutch. I simply hotwired a fused and switched wire from the
battery to the clutch connector and it worked fine, except I had to
remember to cycle it on and off. Not so on the Saturn.

Now they have a pressure transducer that senses both the high and low
pressure sides of the AC system. If either are out of spec, it
doesn't allow the clutch to pull in. Ok. So, I figured maybe it
needed a charge and headed off to Auto Zone and bought one of those
DIY charging kits. Sure enough, the low pressure side was low when
measured with the included gauge. I carefully and faithfully
followed the directions on how to charge it. But it didn't make
sense because the clutch wouldn't engage. Tried it several times
getting the low side up to the specified pressure reading without
success. So, out comes the multimeter and I started checking all the
voltage points. Everything is fine, except no power to the clutch.
I was about to give up and do the "hot wire" thing to see if the
clutch worked at all but decided to Google the wiring schematics for
the Saturn's AC system. Turns out there's a diode in the fuse box
that is supposed to protect the AC fuse from spikes in the line when
the clutch disengages. Checked it in forward and reversed biased
positions and it was shorted. Back to AutoZone and got a new diode,
thinking I had found the problem. Still didn't work, so I decided to
give the recharge one more try. This time I ignored the warnings
about overcharging and brought the pressure up above above the
specified level. That did it. The clutch suddenly engaged and the
tank of R134A started getting cold, meaning the AC system was drawing
the refrigerant out of the tank and the low side pressure dropped to
within the specified range.

Within 5 minutes the car vents were blowing nice, ice cold air and I
felt pretty proud of myself. Rechecked the new diode and it's fine,
so hopefully it will keep working.