[whatsnewell]

They are air valves which I believe are activated electrically. There should be a set somewhere near the front of the coach for the front wheels. I'm surprised there are only 5....I was expecting 6. I've got 12 total....6 for the front, located near the front of the coach in one of the basement storage areas just behind the left front steerer wheel, and 6 in the passenger side engine compartment for the rear wheels.

Here is a picture of my rear cluster.

[encantotom]

here are the pictures of Todd's setup.

tom

   

   

   

[encantotom]

hi todd,

the front manifold is the same as everyone else has from about your vintage up to the 2000's. only location has changed. the front one uses a HWH RAP1940 solenoid (at over $100 each).

the rear is different than clarkes was. same solenoid valves, but different config. it will be easy to tell what does what. you have someone hit the rear left up leveling switch while in leveling mode and see what solenoid clicks and you can hear air going through. same for down only you will hear the air venting. just do that for up and down on both rear sides. the remaining one is a travel mode. there appears to be another inline solenoid valve that is the small round one that is inline. i need to go look at clarkes again.

so, i would start by tracing them out.

tom

[Flick]

Pics sent to you Tom. So do you guys think it's best to jut replace all the Solenoids and Valves since they don't seem to cost a great deal? How difficult are these to do by yourself or are the best left to someone trained or well learned?

[whatsnewell]

I can only speak for the MAC valves....Tom and I redid the ones in back.....it's just plumbing, and hooking up the wires. Tom took a picture of the original cluster before we took it out, and then blew it up and printed it so we could use that as the "map" for rebuilding the new cluster.....we used the picture extensively for both the plumbing and wiring.

[encantotom]

as for needing to change the rear ones all out, not really sure or not. i would spend a little time testing them out and seeing if something doesnt work. in the case of clarkes, they leaked. we pressurized the system and i sprayed windex on them and found a couple that leaked either on the valve body or through the exhaust port. then we replace a couple of them and then a few more leaked when the new ones were holding pressure. at that point clarke decided to just change the rest of them in the rear. his front ones were just fine and were not leaking.

so i would see if they work, then see if they leak and go from there. his were very obvious with windex bubbles that they were leaking.

as for rebuilding the manifold, it took me and clarke a couple of hours and that counted alot of chit chat. then another hour or so to put them back in and wire them up.

the obvious key is to take pictures and make sure you label the wires and hoses. i took a picture and put labels on the wires and hoses and then marked them on the printed picture.

it worked first time when we put it back up. looked alot better than before too.

it did require buying a number of fittings that make them go all together. i also use thread sealant that is brush on. it is a mess if as you put it back on and one of the fittings in the middle of it all leaks.

i am pretty fearless and clarke was a bit more skittish, but got the hang of it and i think it helped to get him over the hump of just ripping things apart and fixing it.

so, it is not very difficult.

but it is still 2-300 bucks so i wouldnt do it unless you are pretty sure they are not working right or leaking. but up to you, i replaced a lot of stuff just to start off fresh myself. airleaks are a never ending job. but....on your rig it should be very possible to find and stop them all. you do not have a ton of air powered stuff. i believe on clarkes we found all the leaks, but i will let him answer that for himself.

tom

[whatsnewell]

As Tom will recall, another leak we found was the pressure regulator coming off the engine compressor, which is also a cheap fix....the regulator costs around $25. No more leaks since February, Tom. The coach airs up fast, and holds its position indefinitely. Before the right rear would not always come up to ride height, and when I turned off the coach the back would settle down very quickly.