I decided to join this forum to share a bit of knowledge I couldn't find anywhere on the net, so I figured I would join this site and post in case anyone runs into the issue I did this past week.

The AC compressor on my wife's 2005 Equinox has been taking a dump, and its getting to the point where the clutch isn't spinning very free, and we're not going to put a new compressor on the car right now.

So I was trying to find a way to bypass the AC while still making sure all the other accessories were working properly, I took a string, drew out a map I thought would work well, and this is what I came up with. She's been driving the car these past couple days with no issues.

If you have this era Equinox, and can't afford or don't care to fix your AC system, here's a trick to bypass the compressor.

 

Welcome to the forum.

Very clever. I hope there's still enough wrap on the crank pulley and the water pump pulley to provide the drive they need.

 

Thanks been running on the truck for over a week now with zero issues. Great solution for anyone on the side of the road and stranded with a locked up ac compressor. All accessories run and spin just fine. We will be getting some many needed parts for this truck, including a new ac compressor soon.

Not the best truck chevy has made by any means, but this 2005 Equinox has been a pretty decent truck over the years. When we are ready to move onto something a bit newer, I'm sure the next owner will be able to a few more thousand miles out of it too. Is a 2005 Equinox a truck that can easily make 200,000 miles, I doubt it. I think the non serviceable awd transmission is weak, and unless you have the $300 for a 1 to 1 fluid flush every 30k miles, my guess is you will only get to 150k to 170k befroe you need a rebuild.

 

Almost 1000 miles later and still no issues using the shorter belt and bypassing the ac compressor on our 2005 equinox.

 

We are still driving the Equinox with the shorter belt. I would say bypassing the AC compressor on a first generation Equinox can be done pretty easily with a shorter belt, and without removing the ac compressor itself. If the image doesn't load for any reason, the belt I sized up to work was a 643k6.

No issues for the past 4,000 miles.

The only difference in bypassing the AC (from counter clockwise direction) is to go from the tensioner to the crank pulley (not the ideler), crank pulley to the ideler (yes the ribs will be facing the wrong direction on the ideler), ideler to water pump (belt is now facing the correct direction again), the rest of the stock diagram is the same.

 

Im stranded now with my ac compressor locked up!! I was thinking of doing this so I searched and found you! Can you help me out with a length of belt that you got or possibly a part number. I'm headin to part store now. Please hep!

 

Welcome to the forum. If you have the same Equinox, the belt part number is in the post right above yours.

 

I saw once I looked again after posting. I was just goin fast either but i took the number to napa and I got the belt and it poped right on how you had it displayed perfectly! Ment to be haha but thank you for posting this. Saved me the tow cost and dealers opinion of "no other option" but to replace the pump, cost.

 

Nice! I'm glad this was able to help you. Sorry for the late reply, I don't check in here much.

We just got a new compressor put on my wife's car, we need this truck to get us through 1 more summer. I would say we put close to 9,000 miles on the Equinox with the shorter belt/no ac compressor option.

I still won't recommend it as a "long-term" solution, but it should get anyone by in a bind.

(Belt size to run the 3400/3.4L v6 Equinox without the ac compressor is 643k6 or 6 ribs 643 length, don't go shorter than that, you might be able to get away with a 645 length, but I didn't try that, and it might be too long.)

And if a moderator could please move this information to the proper section of the forum I would appreciate it, sorry I was new and I didn't have access to post in other sections when I first started on this site.

 

Done. Thanks for the update.