eric72

my 1972 cutlass supream keeps blowing the thermal limiter switch that goes to the compressor for the ac, the one that has the 3 male prongs .the last one started smoking so i quit !!! any help!!! thanks

rocketraider

You have a full charge in the system, right? That's what this stupid thing does, is sense low refrigerant charge and blow the T/L fuse to protect the compressor.

But, they were also notorious for blowing randomly and at the most inopportune time they could, even with a correctly charged A/C system.

You should see a (think it's brown) wire going from the T/L fuse clip to a switch on the compressor. Make sure that wire is not grounding on anything, and clean the pin on the compressor switch and also the female plug on the wire- scotchbrite will do the trick. Also clean the terminals in the T/L plug.

If you have a normal charge and cleaning the terminals doesn't help, bypass the damn thing. Unplug the compressor switch wire and tape it to the compressor bracket where it can't ground and cause the fuse to blow. You can handle the fuse itself two ways- leave it in and hope the stupid thing doesn't do the random blow thing, or leave it out and install a jumper wire across the two green wires which effectively takes it out of the picture.