Steve - I think your idea is fine as long as the problems are electric. I would bet tho that most times AC problems refrigerant related. Mayne not, and certainly not all the time.
Just a couple of weeks ago my AC was acting just as Reno describes above. I grabbed my amp probe and headed for the condensing unit. Voltage was good, fuses good, but measured only 2 amps draw (for a 4 ton unit) - the condensor fan is running (duh!) but the compressor is not. This is an old Payne unit, but I had been able to salvage, scan and copy a wiring diagram when I first moved in a few years ago. And what I found was that a loose connection had fried a lug on the compressor motor overload relay in the wiring compartment. These are really strange relays.
I was able to scab on a replacement lug to get going again for the short term, and then I found a replacement at US Air, a local distributor. I'm surprised at that because of the age of this thing. Anyway, I rechecked the amps a couple of times after installing the temp fix and then the replacement relay, couldn't find any other problems.
Radar
