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Air loss while driving?
After a long trip that started in Vonore TN in April, brought us to Eastern Washington State and then back to Vonore TN, we were five miles from our destination. Coming up hwy 72 about 2 miles form the 411 junction, I have a total loss of air. Hear a loud hissing under the drivers area. Pull off the road into an industrial park and the front has dropped to the ground. Brake air is fine (?) and rear is still up (?). Open up the steering compartment door and looking around the level low system (five port air block). No issues. By this point the air is no longer hissing, but the front has lost all it’s air.
Looking around some more, I see the air pressure gauge I had installed last spring laying on the floor of the steering compartment bay! The gauge was installed into the brass junction block near the front of the compartment to allow me to monitor air pressure in the aux system. Seems the compression fitting let go and the pressure in the system blew the gauge off. Pressure gauge was installed with a 90 degree elbow coming off the junction block, to a short hose, to a brass compression fitting to the gauge. The compression fitting attached to the gauge had come off the hose and exhausted all the air in the aux system (including the front air bags?).
Re-installed the gauge and was able to make it to the campground. Will be heading down to NAPA and getting the parts to basically hard mount the gauge to the junction block (no hose between the 90 degree elbow and the gauge) to reduce the chance of failure.
Main question is I would expect that the junction block wouldn’t dump the air bags and/or the brakes (the brake air gauges held fine and I never lost brakes. Rear air bags never drained either). So this makes me really question the air system and how Liberty tied into the chassis air system and why an air failure on the house side/aux side would cause a potential catastrophic failure to the chassis system? Think I need to add a check valve to the aux system so if this happens again, it REALLY doesn’t affect the chassis air system.
The two should really be separate without any chance of one affecting the other. Talk about a huge liability, especially when the house side if so potentially prone to failure and leaks.
Picture of air pressure gauge/fittings that failed.
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3 Replies
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Charles, Your loss of air in the accessory system that feeds the 5 port manifold is likely the problem. When you drive in the road position the center solenoid valve is open and it is sending signal pressure to the valve(s) that hold the air supply path open from the accessory air supply through the ride height valves. If you pressure went to zero the system should have reacted as if the key were off and locked in the air. ‘
I know you are at Jeffs so I would look to see if he can create a pressure loss and duplicate the issue.
There is a specification regarding how many turns to tighten a compression fitting and I think if that spec was observed something went wrong. A tightened compression fitting is litterally swaged onto the tubing such that it cannot fail.
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Looks like u used synflex tubing , did you use the brass inserts that fit in the tube ends to keep the Synflex from collapsing when you tighten the nuts ?
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Jon, Not at jeff’s yet, down the road at Toqua campground enjoying the TN early fall before emptying my bank account at jeff’s later this month 😉
Ye, I would have expected that type of failure to not drop air in the front airbags. just not safe for a driving if a failure in the aux system caused issues with the chassis requirements.
As for the insert? Yes, it was there… So the installation was proper, just failed. As I said, I will be heading to NAPA and replacing the setup with a hard mounted gauge to the 90 degree elbow off the block.
Interesting after effect today. I went to relevel, the front solenoid valve was exhausting (on the five port control block) air and wouldnt stop. I ended up needing to pull the valve and replace it. Not sure what that was about… But when I am at Jeff’s I will go through the entire system again and see what the issue could be.
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