I have a 1998 Grand am and have questions about the air conditioner?

Question

I was wondering if there is any way to disconnect the air conditioner without going to a repair shop. Late last year my air conditioner stopped working and now I have a noise coming from under the hood. The sound is like a loud puring and my husband seems to think its the ball bearings in the air conditioner. The car runs really good and doesn't seem to be having any other problems. I thought if there is a way to disconnect the air conditioner ourselves then we could find out if it is indeed the air conditioner causing the noise. We don't really have the money right now to take it to a repair shop so we wanted to see if this would help.