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Vibration
Last time out I felt a little vibration through the steering wheel at 65mph. So last night, with my oldest son the drivers seat, we did the requisite steering linkage checks, everything looked good. Drop arm? Check. steering rod-ends? Check. Wheel bearings? Check. Panhard rod bushes? Check. SPH preload? Let's do that last....
Just by chance I grabbed each shock. They easily rotated in my hands, and the top of the RH shock was physically loose. Trouble was, the lock nuts were tightened and bottomed on the stud shoulder? Pulled a set to check at the parts store, and looked-up the part numbers for a LR parts order.
Early this AM I find this:
Attachment 2270
The shocks are basically brand-new. However, they were installed the the bushings flipped 180 to the drawing above. This caused the bushes to nest into the cups/washers, and allow the nut to bottom without compressing them.
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That's interesting.
The bushings for OME shocks are symmetrical so it's fool-proof.
I'm not sure I would have known to install the original ones in an EAS RRC that way. I'd think they were upside down, but it makes eminent sense looking at the diagram.
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It is certainly a non-intuitive installation, and purposely designed. Shows the RRC Engineers really thought about a lot of things!
Tonight I decided to swap the bushings to their correct position, which was a little bit of a fight! The rubber was in great condition, but getting the concave end into the cups, and holding it there so I could fit the nut was incredibly hard. Now I know why they get installed incorrectly! Using a slow and steady approach with a little silicone spray, I eventually got it all back together - about 30 minutes per shock.
Test ride to work tomorrow!
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Attachment 2271
Last weekend we hit the Shore so the kids cold test out their paddle-boards. LWB rode like a caddy and I'm really likin' the EAS. I need new bags - they leak, parked in standard height, but hold air fine at extended height.
I also have a new ABS accumulator sitting on my work bench. The ABS pump cycled a little more than it should, and my preliminary tests indicate the accumulator has lost it's charge. Next activity will be it's replacement and a full system bleed.
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Two weeks ago I replaced the EAS bladders.
Attachment 2282
I found genuine Dunlop replacements in the UK
Attachment 2283
There is a significant height difference between the new and old bags, here is an new front next to the old
Attachment 2284
New front bag installed
Attachment 2286
Same for the rear
Attachment 2285
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Since they were so much taller I decided to fight them into as-much-of-a compressed position as possible.
Attachment 2287
It is a real bear to do this. I made a short manual fill line to charge the bladder, then loosened the fitting to slowly bleed-off air, while folding the bladder over onto the lower piston.
The ride is 100% transformed - soft, supple and soaks-up road irregularities.
Next up, I plan to run individual manual fill lines to each air bag, so I can fill them up if the compressor or EAS system fails or faults.
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Does the truck ride higher since the airbags are taller?
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To be honest, I didn't measure ride heights to compare between the new and old airbags. The new ones are taller and narrower because they have never been pressurized under load, so you have to deal with the extra length as best you can before their initial air up. Post inflation they take a similar shape
I would think the height settings are controlled by the individual sensors at each corner. That said, extended height seems a good inch taller than with the old bags. Ride is excellent at every level.
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New coolant, t-stat and hoses were on the menu this weekend. What was the one thing I overlooked? This motor still has the original expansion tank, and it's failed around the seam.
Attachment 2288
So, I ordered one up and now I wait for it to arrive on Tuesday.
At least I now know where the coolant smell was coming from!
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Eas
Last month I did a little maintenance on my EAS system. First, I installed remote manual fill lines for each corner
Attachment 2301
With these lines in place, I can flip the manual EAS override switch, manually inflate each corner, and continue onward in the face of a major EAS fault.
Shortly thereafter, the LWB would slowly lower if parked for a few days to a week. I had a leak!. Finally located it where the original right real line connected to the airline y-fitting. Once that was corrected, I replaced the EAS delay relay with a standard relay, preventing the system to attempt to level the vehicle while parked/unattended. Now when I park it at a certain height, it just sits at that height, with one exception...
When I fixed the leak and swapped the delay relay for a standard one, I had parked the LWB in the EAS extended height setting. Now, the everything operational, when I park overnight the LWB defaults to extended height! I'm not sure how this would work - resetting the default height - but my suspicion is that without a delay relay, the sensor feedback says "extended height" simply because four people + gear were removed after parking, and the now-unladen vehicle rose up from standard height.
Either way I love it. No more settling while parked, the LWB sits at a more visually appealing height, and I usually take it for a short course around around our 4.5 acres before hitting the pavement!