A/c not working, switches good, refrigerant full. Can anyone solve the unsolvable?


surfinhound

10+ Year Member

Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
6
Points
1,501
Vehicle Year
1998
Transmission
Manual
I have a 1998 ford ranger with the 2.5l engine. Very amazing vehicle but the a/c does not work. Ive had some very smart a/c people tell me to jumper the pins in the switches and if the compressor kicks on then my switches are bad but i have jumpered the switches and still the compressor wont run. The only way i can get it to run but it stays constantly on is to jumper two pins in the power distribution box. If i pull out the a/c relay and jumper pins 1 and 3 which are the two top pins the a/c compressor will kick on whether the switch inside the cab is on or not. Can anyone provide some advice on how to solve this? Many have tried but no one seems to have the

MAJOR UPDATE: I checked the junkyard and found three 1998 ford rangers with 2.5's. Now follow me on this. Behind the dash where the switch is to control whether or not the a/c is on max or defrost or on foot etc., if you remove the cd player panel and such and observe this switch. It will have on the top of it, a four pin power plug going into the switch with a black ground wire and a red power wire. NOTE In all 3 junkyard vehicles there is a gray wire with yellow stripe in the 3rd pin and a solid purple in the fourth pin. So the wires behind the switch are red, black, gray with yellow stripe, and solid purple. My vehicle has no gray with yellow stripe or solid purple. Its simply just missing these wires, i only have the red and the black and the other two pins are empty. When i traced the two at the junkyard the gray with yellow stripe went to the fuse box to the left of the steering wheel and the purple went outside to the power distribution box. Now i tried in my vehicle to trace these two wires i am missing. I traced as far back as my hand would reach behind where the cd player goes and cant find these two wires!!!!! Any advice? Any at all?

Sorry for reposting this statement on the bottom, im kinda new to these forums.
 
Last edited:
When you say you tried jumpering the switches, you mean you jumpered the wire harness that connects to the switch, not the pins on the switch itself, right?
 
Sounds like you answered your own question. If you jumped the relay and makes something work then that relay/sensor is bad.

Sent from road while ignoring traffic
 
MAJOR UPDATE: I checked the junkyard and found three 1998 ford rangers with 2.5's. Now follow me on this. Behind the dash where the switch is to control whether or not the a/c is on max or defrost or on foot etc., if you remove the cd player panel and such and observe this switch. It will have on the top of it, a four pin power plug going into the switch with a black ground wire and a red power wire. NOTE In all 3 junkyard vehicles there is a gray wire with yellow stripe in the 3rd pin and a solid purple in the fourth pin. So the wires behind the switch are red, black, gray with yellow stripe, and solid purple. My vehicle has no gray with yellow stripe or solid purple. Its simply just missing these wires, i only have the red and the black and the other two pins are empty. When i traced the two at the junkyard the gray with yellow stripe went to the fuse box to the left of the steering wheel and the purple went outside to the power distribution box. Now i tried in my vehicle to trace these two wires i am missing. I traced as far back as my hand would reach behind where the cd player goes and cant find these two wires!!!!! Any advice? Any at all?
 
They are missing all together? I doubt anyone would rip them out entirely...you sure that's the ac relay?
 
ya 100% check any other vehicle even of other years and theirs 4 wires there. Not on mine though. A 4 pin connector with only a red and black in it. Can you say confusing
 

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