I put a can of the leak detector r134 and a second small can. Some interesting results.
1) I found a small leak where the return hose goes into the compressor. It's funny, because it looks like the clamp holding the hose in belongs there, but thee's an empty threaded hole, as if there should be a different clamp being held by 2 bolts.
2) Upon putting r134 into the system the compressor kicked in, abeit off and on. When the compressor ran the system blew cool air.
3) The compressor was off more than it was on when I had a less than full can attached to the return so I began to mess with the relays. When one of the relays was barely placed in it's socket the compressor ran and it sucked in the rest of the can of r134, however it wouldn't stay running. For a while I could play with the relay and get the compressor to run, one time as long as 10 minutes, in which time the car was nice and cool. Not cold, but definitely a marked improvement.
Could it be the relay? Or could it be the fact that there is barely enough r134 to make the system operate?
I've read that you can jump the compressor clutch, forcing it to run so it takes the refrigerant. How do you do this?