A/C compressor shim option
 

My air conditioning compressor clutch was experiencing the dreaded too-big-gap interittent operation, where it would disengage the compressor when it got too hot, and would require shutting the engine down for 5-10 minutes to re-engage it. This isn't a good thing when it's already 110 degrees here in Arizona, and what had been an unusual problem was getting worse and worse.

I looked at my options, which included dropping the compressor from its mounts, dropping a corner of the subframe, pulling and de-shimming the clutch (way more work than I wanted to get into right now), using bread bag clips as shims (interesting, but I don't trust them to stay in place), or even zip ties (which seem awfully wide, and again - not sure they wouldn't break and/or melt). I decided to use thin (0.4-5mm landscaping "green") wire as a shim, since it could be put in place permanently, and wouldn't compress like a copper wire would.

The technique I used involved pushing the clutch plate back from the hub with a large flat-blade screwdriver, then inserting a second smaller flat-blade screwdriver under one side of the arch-shaped "spring" on the front of the clutch. This opened up a gap that was wide enough to pass the wire through (see the two screwdrivers, the green wire, and the gap in this photo):

http://habcycles.com/shim1.jpg

Then I just wiggled the wire around until I could catch the end of it with a long rod (one I'd modified for upholstery with a notch that worked really well at catching the wire so I could pull it out where I could reach it better).

http://habcycles.com/shim2.jpg

This left me just enough room to get my arm down in front of the compressor, where I could use a small pair of needle-nose pliers to grab the wire and twist it around the long wire (which I held in tension with my other hand). Doing this, I was able to get a reasonably tight twist in the wire.

http://habcycles.com/shim3.jpg

Then I just used a pair of side-cutters to snip off the wire, and...

http://habcycles.com/shim4.jpg

... folded it over so it wouldn't look so obvious.

http://habcycles.com/shim5.jpg

In the last photo, you can see several of the wires in place - I put one on each side of the three "arches". Notice the nice, small gap in the compressor clutch now!

http://habcycles.com/shim6.jpg

The end result was a compressor clutch gap down around 0.5mm, and an A/C system that cools consistently like it should (after some fiddling, I'm getting vent temperatures down to below 35 degrees on a 100 degree day... bliss!).

I don't have any reason to believe that my "fix" will ever fail, and worst case it'll just last long enough that I'll need to put in bigger wire - or take the clutch apart and de-shim it. I also modified the airbox temperature sensor to reduce the frequency of the compressor cycling on and off (by wrapping a couple layers of masking tape around the sensor element) and pulling the sensor a few inches out of the airbox so it's not quite so much in the direct airflow. So with less frequent compressor clutch cycling, and frosty air pouring out of the vents, I'm good for another Arizona summer...:cool:

Nice work!

BTW, here is the link to the proper means of re-shimming the clutch for future reference. I got curious and did a search - sounds like you can re-shim w/o removing the compressor. Given that piece of information, I think I'd recommend going that route. If you'd like to avoid fabbing up a puller, you could try to see if would work for the job. It looks like it could be made to work - at most you may need to supply the 5mm bolts to secure the puller to the clutch plate

I agree a proper re-shim would be a very good thing, but it's a LOT more work than my wire method (which, 7,000 miles later is working perfectly BTW). The photos on the link show a lot more room in front of the compressor clutch than I have in my V70 T5 - that no doubt varies by model, but I didn't see any realistic way to pull the clutch without some fairly significant disassembly (even the link you supplied requires removing the bolts that hold on the compressor, drier, and removing the wheelwell liner at a minimum). There's no way in the world the linked puller would work in my car - the threaded portion of the tool is much longer than the very tight clearance between the clutch and the body. Again, this might vary by model.