Bypassing leveling and other air controls

[artvonne]

  I intend to bypass the leveling valves on my MC5 and control leveling manually. Now, I may keep the valves functional for road travel, and bypass while parked, but I havnt thought that far ahead yet and that sounds much more complex than I want or need. Maybe my valves are old, but I recall all the old Buses we hauled off to scrap being simular. They have a range of motion between inflate and deflate, and can deflate a ways before they stop. And all three valves leak down within a day or so and Da Bus is on the ground. And as I recall on others, and this one is doing it as well, the valves leak more as pressure falls off. Ultimately, I am curious what max pressure should be limited to on the air bags.

  Secondly, im curious as to how many other air systems I can bypass and live without to eleviate potential leaks. I know I can bypass the radiator louvers. But the belt tensioners concern me as the air cylinders would have some give that a bolt would not. For sure I will leave the one of the alternator. Suggestions?

[Len Silva]

Most of the things that leak on these old buses are not expensive, including leveling valves.  If it is the valves that are leaking, replacing them one time would probably last you the lifetime of the bus.

Bypassing for other reasons, such as having control over the level of the bus is one thing, but doing it just to eliminate leaks seems like the long way around.

[artvonne]

Bypassing for other reasons, such as having control over the level of the bus is one thing, but doing it just to eliminate leaks seems like the long way around.

  I would agree.

  What about max psi?

[Ed Hackenbruch]

Paul, our 5 has the Level It system on it and going down the road i run the front bags at 80 lbs and the back at 70 lbs. The reason for this is to make the angle between the bus and the tow bar for the jeep to be as flat as possible. Seems that somebody told me that 90 lbs was about max for the bags.

[artvonne]

  Ed, you likely know this, but ride height on the rear axle changes the driveshaft angle. It would be much better to run at the correct height, and thus keep the driveshaft happy, and use a drop hitch to correct the tow bar angle.

  If 90 psi is max, might be a good idea to have a relief valve in there somewhere??

 

[gus]

The air gages are supposed to read 0 when in highway mode.

They need to be bled before getting underway after switching to hwy mode.