A/C compressor cycling

[cosmophone]

I am new to this forum and this is my first post. The A/C compressor in my 1995 Explorer 4.0 cycles on and off when the A/C is OFF. I hear a slight short metallic ping that seems to be coming from the right side of the driver's compartment when the compressor turns off or on. Is this normal? When the engine is idling and the compressor turns on I can see a slight RPM decrease. When I am driving I can feel it as a slight deacceleration, almost like the engine is missing a bit (but I don't think it is).

Stay tuned for another thread about a strangely discharging battery on the same vehicle.

 

[Kriegen]

It may be doing this if you have your climate control settings to defrost or defrost/floor

 

[my98nnj]

It actually will run on every setting except vent and floor.
Pretty normal for it to be cycling.