[77newell]

I don't know the vintages when Newell used the "maintenance free" dryer that looks like a vertical finned cylinder. My 93 coach came with it and based on the vintage of the dryer it had been installed by the factory. The drive from Texas to Michigan produced a bit a water from the service tank drain and from one of the brake tanks.

I removed the original dryer and replaced it with a Bendix AD-9. Since then I have had no water appear at any of the tank drains. When I return to Michigan I plan to install lines and remote valves for draining the tanks. No more crawling under the coach to drain or the cable drain valves that I've used and found that they don't always seal tight on closure.

[Richard]

All of this conversation about the air system motivated me (with Jon's help) to change out the air dryer cartridge. Well that and the MIL is with us this week, so I needed some outside activity.

Anyway, I was prepared for the cartridge to take some coercion to spin it off. I was unprepared for what happened. Two strap wrenches in tandem would not budge the cartridge. I took a hefty screwdriver, put a notch in the rim of the cartridge, and then angled the screwdriver in the notch. Hitting it with a two pound engineer's hammer moved the cartridge.

About one whole turn before the cartridge seized. The funny thing was the cartridge would move back and forth about 1/4 of an inch, and it was clear the seal had broken loose. Hmmmmmmmmm. After an hour of unsuccessfully trying different techniques, the only thing I knew to do was to rip the skin off the cartridge and see what was seized. Using a side grinder, pliers, screwdrivers, and a few swear words resulted in access to the real problem. The plate with the threads for the center boss is not an integral part of the cartridge skin.The skin was loose on the bottom plate of the cartridge. If you look at a new cartridge, this will make sense. After gaining access to the plate, we could put the screwdriver on holes in the plate and use the hammer to finish loosening it.

You can imagine that this butchery resulted in ten gazillion of the dessicant beads falling into the blow off valve body. Jon helped me disassemble the valve body to clean out the beads.

It's kind of funny after the fact. But I did have that feeling of "commitment" when I first penetrated the skin of the cartridge.

Thanks Jon for the help and moral support.

[HoosierDaddy]

That reminds me of a few brutal encounters with engine oil filters. Some thoughtful GM engineers recess the filter into the engine block enough to eliminate the opportunity for screw-driver on the rim approach....
Richard, is your drier a Bendix and was that an original genuine Bendix filter?

[rheavn]

Hopefully you put it back on handtight only and lubricated the rubber seal!  

The very first desiccant filter change I witnessed was on Richard's coach in 2010 when Tuga owned it.

[Chester Stone]

When I had my dryer filter changed in Mesa last September, the filter and plate came out together, and locked. A humungus vise, a six foot cheater pipe and three mechanics could not loosen the threads. Fortunately, the mechanic had a discarded air dryer and was able to use the plate from that dryer as a replacement.

[Brad Townsend]

Well I was at Newell to have the air leak chased down and an AC issue.
We arrived on a Sunday (june 26) with no appointment and understandably had to wait till Wednesday for an opening.
They pulled the coach in and went to work on the AC issue which lasted into the next day at which the coach stayed level all night, the compressor never came on and usually I loose all air overnight. That was june 29th and to date it still is holding great, I can go for days before the compressor comes on. Must have been a piece of debris that finally got blown out. As for the AC issue you have to go to the other thread I started to catch up on that.

Thanks guys for all your input.

Brad