My A/C recently went out. Luckily it happened at the end of summer(just two seasons here in south-central Texas, summer and "winter"). Before it went out, for the longest time, it would make a sound similar to if you would stick an aluminum can next to the spokes of a bike, kind of. This sound would happen only when the compressor would kick on. More recently the a/c would stop blowing cold air. So I would turn it off and then on again and it would work for a little bit. This "little bit" had been getting shorter until eventually it just wouldn't blow cold air. Not only did it not blow cold air but "it" started to smoke/smell bad. So when I got home I took off the belt and that's how its been til now.
So my question is, is this the compressor or the clutch? If it is the clutch can I replace it without discharging the refrigerant?

My ac clutch went out last year as I was rolling into Uwharrie. It was making a ton of noise. I changed the clutch as soon as I got home. Not a year later, my ac compressor quit. It was a lot of work just changing out the clutch & now I have to replace the compressor. So if I were you, I'd change the compressor as well. Good chance it will go out soon if it hasn't already. You'll save yourself the work of doing it twice.

What happened to my clutch, after 13 yrs, was it wore the clutch face until the air gap was too large for the clutch to pull in. When it is borderline it will work cold, and when it heats up and expands slightly it wont pull in anymore. That is why it works for a while, and when the AC cycles off, it wont pull back in. You CAN get under vehicle and push carefully on center of spinning clutch face with wooden dowel and it will pull back in if thats the case.

The diesel-kiki compressor is not cheap to replace on a '95 trooper, about $500 new is cheapest to get it. I wouldnt touch a reman for that, and the clutch isnt sold seperately either.

My compressor has a washer (shim) behind the clutch to adjust air gap to spec. I purchased the right tool to pull the clutch ($35 online, NOT available locally) after trying to make my own. Pulled the clutch, removed the shim, used a sharpening stone/emery paper to sand the shim to about half its original thickness, and reassembled. No more problems.