i many have made an expensive mistake today!

i many have made an expensive mistake today! - Printable Version

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i many have made an expensive mistake today! - Gem930 - 11-18-2024

I wanted to troubleshoot a ride height issue I have been having with "new to me" coach #639. The left rear of the coach only cames to ride height occassionally. Since my muffler has seen better days (yet another job) I decided shop air might be a better option rather than upsetting my neighbors running the engine for air. There are two air chucks in the right side engine bay. The front one appears to be connect to a regulator, but has no air at all. The rear one had pressure then the engine was running so I thought it was the correct place to connect shop air. Prior to connecting the air line I ran the coach enginge unitl to brake and source tanks read 120 psi. Then, prior to connecting the shop air I connected a pressure gauge to the rear chuck and verified there was 120 psi. Since there was, I was unconcerned about connecting shop air. I set the shop air regulator to 120 psi, verified it with the same pressure gauge and connected it up. I made my way around to the left rear axle and heard and new sound.... a large air leak coming from the slide seal directly above the wheel well. Did I pop the seal?

I disconnected the air and the system completely bled down withen an few minutes. I pinned the door closed with a stick, walked into my house and made a stiff drink.

Any ideas?

Gregg

RE: i many have made an expensive mistake today! - Jack Houpe - 11-19-2024

The rear seal on normal coaches is smaller than the front seal, some exceptions to that is entertainer coaches which a couple of our members have that being said they use the same seal as the front but its to big for the rear so they cut it down and clamp it that clamp can leak I have had that problem in the past but fixed it but following the procedure putting the rear slide into the inside of the coach an additional 2 inches and removing the clamp use some rubber glue product Richard knows the name of it and re-clamping it. First get some soapy water and spray it on that clamp and see if its leaking. If it isn't check the hose connection that is normally to the right of that clamp in the wheel well.

RE: i many have made an expensive mistake today! - Richard - 11-19-2024

Greg,

Those air seals are supposed to on their own regulator. The one for the bedroom slide is usually under the bed, under some panels.

Are you sure the sound could not be coming from the air dryer blowoff valve? They can act weird sometimes when hooked to shop air.

Disconnect the shop air, see if the whoosh stops, and monitor supply air pressure.

RE: i many have made an expensive mistake today! - encantotom - 11-19-2024

hi greg, i second what richard said. justr plugging into shop air should not cause a slide seal to overinflate and blow. if you have a raised floor slide where the bed is sitting on it, the regulator will be under the bed. if you have a flat floor slide it will likely be in a bay compartment in front of the engine. that is where mine is. that said.....it is possible you have a leak in your slide seal that you just didnt hear when the engine was running. lets hope not

tom

RE: i many have made an expensive mistake today! - Gem930 - 11-19-2024

After reviewing several other posts last night and looking over the reply’s here, it looks like I did connect the shop air correctly. Is that right? Now that I’m pretty sure I did not cause the problem, I’ll stop beating myself up and head out and see what I can find out where the leak is.

RE: i many have made an expensive mistake today! - Gnawrocki1 - 11-19-2024

The slide seal is fed from the Ping tank in front of the passenger side air tank. You might consider adding a ball valve at that tank so that you can turn off that circuit and remove it from future troubleshooting, or to get you buy in a pinch if a large leak occurs.

RE: i many have made an expensive mistake today! - encantotom - 11-20-2024

There is a small ball valve at the solenoid for the slide bladder. Has a small handle and is not obvious. But....you have to have access to it. Also a reminder to do the vacuum pump mod to sick your seal down

Tom

RE: i many have made an expensive mistake today! - Gem930 - 11-20-2024

I’m confused!!!! I disconnected the shop air and everything seems to be (kinda) working fine using the engine compressor. I still have a pretty fast leak down, and for some reason my 120v compressor is not working, but at least it does not appear I popped a slide seal. I have been too afraid to hook up the shop air again to see if the leak sound at the seal comes back. I replaced the height control valve on the left side and it’s working, but seems to run out of travel before the full 12” is achieved (I’ll make a separate post about this).
Thanks for all the info.

RE: i many have made an expensive mistake today! - cwl1979 - 11-20-2024

When you say fast leak down. How fast are we talking? Minutes? Few seconds? I drove commercially for 15 years and have had many air issues. Especially in cold weather!

RE: i many have made an expensive mistake today! - Gem930 - 11-20-2024

Well I don’t know for sure, I’ll try to get a better answer tomorrow. Yesterday evening I ran the engine and got the pressure to 120psi. I shut everything down and closed the door. This morning my gauges all read zero and the door was sitting about half open.