Aircon nightmares!

Hi folks,

Apologies but a bit of a lead up story to this one and hoping to get a few pearls of wisdom thrown my way. Want to give as much info as possible. I have also asked the question on the LCOOL site and have had a few good responses but thought I would go fishing here too!

('02 HZJ 105 - non turbo) Last week on the way down south my aircon simply stopped working including the interior fan and also all of the lights on the centre console related to the fan and A/C tripped. Shortly thereafter I started to notice a slight burning smell. Upon inspection under the bonnet there was a streak of what looked like melted black plastic sprayed across the underside of the bonnet and a light film of stringy melted black plastic across the engine bay itself. I removed all of this "stuff" and started the engine. Everything appeared to be working normally, no unusual noises and I revved the engine a fair bit from under the bonnet with no visible debris flying out from anywhere. My initial thought was that I recently had 2 new batteries installed with a redarc charger and one of the plastic caps from one of the battery terminals had fallen into the engine bay. Since I had not been on a long trip since installation perhaps it had melted and somehow shorted out some fuses somewhere. I did change out the fuses in the passenger side kick panel but to no avail.

Anyway, a few hundred kms later and we make it to our destination a bit hot and bothered with no A/C but nothing a few cold beers wouldn't fix. The next day I took the Cruiser offroad down to one of the beaches which in one part required a bit of rock crawling over some pretty steep rocks. On the way back and going down a steep rock incline a god awful screaming noise began emanating from the engine bay. I got onto level ground and popped the hood, this time there was no black stuff but the drive belt was slipping on the aircon compressor at the same time as what could only be described as a grinding noise coming from the aircon unit. There was nothing for it but to remove the drive belt altogether which I did with no further noises or issues.

Arriving back in Perth I took it into my mechanic who confirmed that the bearings had collapsed in the compressor. They replaced the compressor (recon part) and fuses etc and it was all good to go. I drove it home (about 20kms) with nice cool aircon and the only damage was a dent to my hip pocket. 1 day later I get in the car, start her up and drive all of 5kms and the noise has returned but worse. This time the belt wasn't moving at all and was essentially destroyed. The compressor had completely seized this time (the first time it could be turned by hand). I removed the belt and took it back to my mechanic however it was late on Friday and they won't be able to look at it until 1st thing Monday.

Any ideas on what could have gone wrong? I am quite concerned as we are leaving for a trip across the Nullabor on Friday and the rest of the vehicle is tip top. Would hate for something like this to affect this trip. Is it a coincidence that this has happened so shortly after having the dual battery/charger installed or could the problem be related? I know a little bit about the mechanics of a car but sweet stuff all about aircons!

Thanks in advance

Craig