A/C problems

[supercal29]

My wife started up our 2003 Odyssey EXL to leave from work yesterday afternoon and heard some squealing and black smoke started coming out from under the hood. She shut off the a/c and that solved most of the problem. I looked at it last night and you could smell the burnt aroma of grease or maybe a belt. With the engine on I could hear the bearings (are there any?) in the a/c unit grinding and you could see some grease or oil residue on the outer lip of the clutch as well as see the clutch wobble. So my questions to any and all are:

1. how do I determine if the problem is the a/c clutch or compressor unit?

2. if the clutch, are there problems if I just replace the clutch and not the compressor?

3. What about the clutch coil - how do I determine if it is at fault?

 

Obviously, it saves several hundred dollars to just replace the clutch ($140) versus the compressor with clutch ($450 - $650). And I am guessing that I don't have to mess with any refrigerant by just doing the clutch.

 

How big a job is it to replace the clutch and or compressor on this van?

 

Thank you very much,

 

Steve

Fishers, IN