Cool. Cheers. Getting in there to drill for cable ties or rivnuts is tricky, I'll try to get some welding clamps in there temporarily.
One of my rear bumper mounts has rusted through so it's dangling on one side just rear of the wheel arch...
1 Will it fail my MoT test on the 4th Jan?
2 Fix or replace? I know a welder/fabricator...
DavidAll wrote:
In plumbing terms we would just call it an insert.
I feel a bit of a knob for not googling first. I just like being on here! It also means anyone with a similar question can see the answer...
In air lines they call it a Ferrule. You order with ID and OD. In our case OD 6mm, ID 4mm.
I'll flag it up if it's the wrong size when it arrives!
I'm finally back on my Viair upgrade.
There's no room for it on the small ledge inboard of the EAS housing. I'm going to mount it remotely on the firewall and run a 6mm tube into the housing. Extending the wiring is trivial.
Can anyone tell me the correct name for the little brass ring INSIDE the little blue pipe we connect to the compressor? I know it's not an olive - wrong shape, it has a shoulder. More like a top hat. Is it a ferrule?
Gilbertd wrote:
Chasman wrote:
Viewed in system terms it's actually very simple.
The dampers merely damp the oscillations so are going to work the same irrespective of ride height, although I agree load will have an affect. It amuses me when people say the shocks are completely worn out as you can compress them and they stay compressed. They will, they aren't pressurised gas shocks so won't extend on their own, the test is how quickly you can compress them. As for spring rates being upside down, how do you come to that conclusion? I've always found it to be the other way round, the higher it is the softer it is. There was one road I used to use regularly where I'd turn off a nice smooth 60 mph stretch, so it would be at Motorway height, onto a pretty grim bit of potholed, bumpy, road. The bumps always felt far worse until I'd poked the inhibit and rocker to raise it up to Standard. For the same reason I always lock it in Motorway when towing (although the handbook says to lock in Standard), as it feels far more stable at that height. It's got something to do with the way the bottom of the rubber bladder wraps over on itself the lower it goes.
On dampers, yes they primarily damp, but the valving is tuned to a frequency which is determined by a number of factors including unsprung weight and spring stiffness. Buddy of mine does a lot of track days and bought a messed up BMW which was severely oversprung. Had to figure all that out. They were gas dampers with a rebound rate.
In our cars on stock dampers the springs do all the rebounding. That means when the springs are deflated and soft, high frequency bumps can cause "jack down" where the damper never rebounds before the next bump, moving down until you reach the bump stops. That's probably what you were feeling. The trailer thing is odd, but could simply be that it matched the height of the trailer axles.
donmacn wrote:
I keep an eye on all EAS threads, especially ones like this, as a way of trying to raise (pun intended!) my general level of knowledge.
On the point about marking the pipes before removal, it occurred to me that you could possibly also measure the intended depth they’re supposed to go in to, and then mark that on the pipes - if you were fitting new or amended ones for example?
Yes. Mark the existing ones (if they are tried and tested) then measure or use as templates.
Viewed in system terms it's actually very simple. Adjustable springs, a set of sensors, a pneumatic distribution system and an ECU with 4 sets of 4 numbers to match. The diagnostics are a bit flaky "Invalid fault code" doesn't help anyone. All the electronics are 20 years old and doesn't last forever - capacitors are usually the first to go.
Mechanically it's compromised. There's no way fixed dampers can be optimised for 4 different road heights. The spring rates will vary with passengers and loads because of the leveling mechanism. The spring rates are all upside down. Soft at highway speeds and rock hard off-road. Fitting the Arnott Gen 3s partially addresses that last issue, but the rest are still in play.
All the said, I still love it, the noise it makes and the things it can do that normal cars can't. And it makes much more sense to own a car I can repair (eventually!) than open a fresh can of worms with no community of owners to help me...
Okay, folks. It's fixed thanks to GD.
In a nutshell, some of the pipes in the block were leaking. Instead of using a weak solution of washing up liquid I bought a commercial spray which, for some reason, didn't do the job. Lots of tiny bubbles, but no big ones.
Problem located we started again. Checked if any pipes had been trimmed and chamfered, the lengths from the moulded ridge all matched. Next we began putting them back, using NEAT washing up liquid as recommended, to lube the tips.
We paid particular attention to the distance to the moulded ridge in the pipes once in. The second or third went in further than the others, so we back tracked. Eventually got them all in and matching.
If we do it again I'll mark a circle on them all with a white Chinagraph or chalk pen before removal.
GD also suggested putting a T from our emergency kit into line 6 (purple band) to the reservoir. This meant we could connect a second compressor to the Schrader valve to speed things up and take load off the built in one.
It also gave us a guage which rose to 120psi in a few minutes, then we turned it off and let the built in one finish the job.
It's an object lesson in not letting the complex parts of a problem take your eye off the basics.
I'm just looking for confirmation.
Saw a thread on dead EAS where someone jacked up the rear axle to access height and the system recovered. The hypothesis is that some cars go so far out of range when deflated the ECU throws in the towel.
Any grain of truth to this?
Gilbertd wrote:
I've never disconnected the battery, just make sure ignition is off and the key is in your pocket. No power is no power no matter how you achieve it. Take the cassette out, tape it so it can't rotate and test for continuity from one end to the other.
Super, that's what I thought.
I want to work on the steering wheel buttons and cassette. Is there any way to remove the airbag without disconnecting the battery? I've had key problems and don't want the hassle.
Also, is there a way to test the cassette? None of my controls for cruise, ICE, etc. are working.
Gilbertd wrote:
Chasman wrote:
I assume all the solenoids open when you turn them off? That means I won't be able to inflate the car which currently has no compressor because inlet will be open to the atmosphere. Correct?
No, with no power they are all closed. Inlet isn't open due to the diaphragm valve being closed. Or, you can do as I did here https://rangerovers.pub/topic/2605-eas-compressor-ring-recommendation?page=1#pid36021 and put the air straight into the port that would have the reservoir connected to it and energise each valve in turn. To do that, unplug the connector in the front of the EAS box where the cabling from the ECU connects to the driver pack. See the diagram:
This is a picture of the plug from the ECU so the pin numbering is upside down, but if you look at the plug with male pins in the EAS box and follow from there. Put 12V onto pins 10 and 11 and ground on pins 12 and 13 (a standard spade terminal will push over both pins). Then you can check each solenoid feed in turn by putting 12V onto the corresponding pin. So pin 5 = rear left, pin 4 = rear right, pin 3 = front left, pin 2 = front right, pin 1 = inlet valve and pin 9 = exhaust valve. If you open the inlet valve and the valve for one corner, as long as you have some pressure built up, that corner will rise.
Great information, as ever.
I just realised the T-pieces on the inflation kit are all "spring side" for want of a better term. Haven't thought it through. Thank you for the help and patience.
Marshall8hp wrote:
the orange stuff, it changes colour to green when it is “moist”. If you find it has changed colour, take it out, spread it out on an oven tray and put it in the oven at 100 degrees for an hour or so and then reuse.
Superb advice. I'll get that colour changing stuff, for sure. Thank you!
Okay. Reducers all sorted.
Cannibalised plug from burnt out pump. Orange to ground, black to black and red to green for the power.
I've decided to mount it outside the EAS box and run the hose and power into it.
Does anyone have pictures of a 350C mounted externally?
Reducer arriving tomorrow. Plumbing is weird. Don't take anything here as gospel yet. Depending on the type of joint you either subtract the thickness of the pipe, or not.
The 380C has a tapered male thread on the hose measuring 1/2" with 18 threads per inch. IF I've understood, this is actually called a 1/4" NPT because you subtract 2 x 1/8th unless it's a compression joint, then you don't.
The car has a very standard 10mmx1mm (10mm diameter with 1mm thread pitch).
My manual inflation setup has arrived. Exactly what you'd expect, really. 4 T-pieces, 4 long and 4 short sections of 6mm hose and 4 Schrader all mounted on an L-shaped bracket. All with a view to checking if the system is pressurising at all.
You can use standalone in emergencies or leave inline. They even supply stoppers so you can completely bypass the valve block. Might need that if we can't figure things out from the circuit diagram.
They advise pulling the black delay relay under the passenger seat. Not really what I wanted because I was going to inflate them while eyeballing the heights in the Nanocom.
I assume all the solenoids open when you turn them off? That means I won't be able to inflate the car which currently has no compressor because inlet will be open to the atmosphere. Correct?
I will test Pump 1 with a 12v supply as suggested.
How did you figure out the solenoids were in the wrong holes?
Will check solenoids for leaks and placement as recommended.
To clarify the pump issues.
The one we refurbished (Pump 1) won't run at all. Orange and black show continuity so thermal cutout not an issue. Signal Pin in relay socket was getting 14.3 volts. Jumping the Fuse and Load pins did nothing until we put my good one (Pump 2) in... that ran when jumped and when we reinstated the relay. We concluded the motor in Pump 1 has burnt out.
Pump 2 just runs and runs. About 50 degrees centigrade.
Valve States as seen by Nanocom were as you describe on our final attempt. Inlet was shut but SEND TO ACCESS fixed that.
I have one of those piggy back override kits with Schrader valves arriving Friday. That should give easier pressure readings from under the bonnet.
This is a weird one.
Just switched the valve block in Sooz' car. We also refurbed the air dryer to get rid of the powder and cleaned the pipes.
Her compressor had died so we reconditioned and refitted it But it wouldn't run even when we used a jumper in the relay. We swapped in the compressor from my car and that worked fine. BUT... it never stops running, the system won't pressurise. It won't even rise from the bump stops to Access.
Since the new valve block is from eBay with an X8R kit fitted it's an unknown quantity.
We've made the classic error of changing so many things in one go we have no idea where the point of failure is. Have a Nanocom but no clue what to look for.
I've sprayed everything except the bottom air dryer collet with leak detector. Nothing. Can't feel any air leak by hand.
dave3d wrote:
I put a Tee in the line to the reservoir. It is 6mm o.d.
Did you use push to fit?
Two pipe connectors and a Schrader?
Do you have a link?
Sorry to be asking so much but this is way outside my area. I'm upgrading my compressor and finding the correct reducer is a nightmare... I have 4 all too big!
Where's the best place to put a T-piece for a pressure gauge for the EAS and what hardware do I need?
Does anyone on here have a rig to bench test rebuilt valve blocks?