Thanks again to those of you who weighed in on my issue. For those interested, the original post is linked below.

After some troubleshooting and a nasty electrical surprise (see my Update #2 post in the original thread), I now have a new electrical panel. I finally had an HVAC tech come out on Tuesday, and unfortunately he confirmed that my compressor is shot. On a 14-year-old R-22 unit, it makes zero sense to repair the existing system, so I've been getting quotes for a brand new system. I work for a commercial general contractor, so thankfully I have some connections and got a very good price from one of our subcontractors. I'm hoping to have them out before the next cold snap arrived late this week, but I have a lot of prep work to do in the meantime.

We've never really liked where the outdoor unit was located, but it made no sense to vacuum down a perfectly functional R-22 unit to relocate it. So now is the time. I spent this weekend clearing some forsythia bushes in the new unit location and pouring a concrete pad for the unit to sit on. Now I need to install new electrical load centers for the new units...long story short, my main panel has a breaker that feeds two load centers under the house - one for the outdoor unit, and one for the indoor unit. Both of those breakers are original to the house, so they are 45 years old. Given the electrical issues I had with my main panel, I'm going to take this opportunity to install all new components to make sure everything is safe. Plus, I need to run power to the new outdoor unit location and relocate the outside disconnect.

I'm hoping I can knock all of this out after work in the new couple of evenings, but I have a feeling I'm just going to need to take a day off of work to get it all done. We'll see how tomorrow goes...