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Replacing Front Air Bags on XL II With IFS
Jon and I had to bail when doing mine, but I just watched one being done here in Jacksonville.
Getting the old one out was relatively easy for Paul, but he remembered too late to use the extension to loosen the fitting before removing the extension. You have to do that because if you don’t you have to configure the 90 coming out of the bag so that it can come through the top plate. After that a little compression and turning let’s it slip out to the front of the bus.
Putting the new one in took a lot long because he tried to squash it top to bottom and slide it back in the same way, which doesn’t work regardless of how much compression and hammering one does. You put it in top first, from the front, with the 90 degree elbow in place and going in first. It slipped in without a bit of effort.
All was done without the wheel even coming off!
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16 Replies
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Still amazing! Glad I only of had to do it once!! I could not figure it out any other way. Thanks for sharing how the pro did it. Bob
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Pictures? You mean instead of trying to get it out the side all we would have had to do was tip it and get it out towards us?
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that’s all we would have had to do!
no pictures. they would have been too dark and shot over the tire. Besides, until it slipped in with little effort they would have all been random shots of an airbag in different positions.
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Damn!
Makes me want to go out and try it on my bus. I’m trying to get my foot in position to kick myself in the ass.
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As soon as I get my bus back, you can try it on mine, just 200 miles away.
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was it turned ? off ground? Got to be a just correct position. Bob
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Karl and I spent waaaay too much time trying to get the front air bag out under the A frame, between the A frame and the bottom mounting pad. We never tried to remove it by bringing it toward us over the A frame. We had the wheel and shocks off so the suspension was as far down as it would go.
I’m going to GA to watch Truk take his out. I want to see his new rivet repair job anyway.
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Wheel was turned only for access, and was off of the ground. The bag actually came out _under_ the A frame.
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Need to see that being done. We tried every which way to bring it out from under the A frame towards us but the ball joint (pivot point) seems to prevent that.
Pictures? Drawings?
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Do it your self guys, I cut mine in half comming out . Went rite back in like it was suppost to. I did remove the bottom cone going in and put it back on before standing up. I do bow to the pro on this one!!!!! Had to be a way to do it–so called trick to the trade. Book says remove plate. Could that be the cone that I’m refering to? It would come out then. Mine was bonded to old bag from age/road dirt/rust,I pulled but it would not move. It’s history to me and probably never to be revisted.
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The replacement air bag we got did not have a removeable cone (I think it is called the piston). At least I don’t think it did.
Karl?
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Nothing was removed. It came out and went in as one piece. Also, he hadn’t done one in years, so had to figure it out as he went. Still, he could and I couldn’t, so I can’t gripe about the time to figure it out.
As for drawinds….probably not a good idea! I would have had to take about 1,000,000 pictures and would STILL have had to get lucky for the one where it slipped into place.
In addtion to my original post, essentially it was tilted 90 degrees so that the top of the bag was towards the back of the bus. That means that the bottom of the bag was the first part removed, and it came out through the front. The twistings and turnings to make that happen seemed fairly random.
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I guess when mine are due for changing (2 years) I’m going to complete my on-the-job training. Kinda like summer school because I failed the first semester.
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Let me know if you need a teacher! 😉
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Interesting thread. Just had the front bags replaced last Wednesday at the Houston Prevost facility. Was told couldn’t be done that way; they popped out the top A frame link (wishbone) ball joint stem with a sledge hammer, removed the old and popped the new in, but it was a trick to get the upper ball joint stem of the wishbone back into the hole. I wouldn’t think the (older) H3 is that much different but I paid to have this done and I am glad I didn’t try this at home. After looking at two 13-14 year old airbags, I will have the rear six replaced at the next opportunity.
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