Spring Air Leak Shakedown.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

I found 7 different air leaks over the last couple of days.

A couple I knew were there, a few that I have sealed on previous spring roundups and a couple new ones that may have been leaking all along. Still won't hold air but it is trying real hard

I opened the aux air filter in the steering bay. The filter element is a small spool of twine held inside the housing with a spring I have never seen anything this lame on anything I have ever worked on. It looks like something out of the 40's. I like it. If I can seal the flange between the top and bottom of the housing where it was bubbling I'm keeping it

Now I need to straighten out the 2 different front bags get the eyelets to keep from pulling off the front shocks and find that thunk up there and then that bus will be a Happy Camper.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Joe,

Are you sure the front air bags are the problem? I cannot believe Prevost would use air bags or shocks to limit suspension travel in the full up position. I think your shocks may be too short. Whenever I have replaced air bags I have the body supported and the front axle hangs on its stops, but not on the air bag or shocks.

Have you removed the shocks and measured the distance between the shock mounting points at the extreme down and up positions? Any shock has to be able to compress to the shorter distance (or even a little bit less, and extend to the greater distance plus a little bit more.)

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Jon funny thing. All the stuff I been doin on everybody else's buses and with ours being down in Florida this is the first time I've had the time and parts and been able to put it up and really go through it

I was hoping that what you suggest is what I would find on the front shocks but Dalej said a Prevo mechanic told him if you hit a dip in a turn it can happen and he too has busted a couple I will check the travel though.

There should not be any thunking either but according to you that is another issue I guess I have to deal with. So combine that with Brians correction of the wrong length lower radius rods, that I have, and this all adds up to a very well engineered front end on this worlds greatest chassis I'm sitting on.

The front air bags are gettin swapped cause they are 2 different bags up there.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Joe,

I think that mechanic was reaching for straws. There is no way a dip in a turn should break a shock. That's as bogus as Prevost giving you the story about the front air bags are not supposed to lift the front.

[dalej]

Jon,

Have you really looked at the front axle and studied it? If I take off the front two air bags and remove my four shocks then lift the bus up the tires will remain on the ground. There is nothing to hold the axles up on my bus. Thats why I tell people not to just let their bus's axles hang from the shocks.

There is a point that the axle travel is used up, it will pull the bags or the shocks.

This is how my bus is made.

[Kenneth Brewer]

If you can manage it, do not let that mechanic touch anything other than his locker and the car he drives home in. Prevost (or any other vehicle manufacturer) doesn't design for roads that might have a dip in them? What is a suspension is for?

The shock is moved at one end only in this case. The end that moves goes in and out with respect to the other end. That's it. The shock doesn't know whether the dip occurred in a corner or on the flat or if the vehicle was dropped the last few inches on a lift. Unless something else broke, like the wishbone, in which case the broken shock would have been the least of it. I have heard of cases where one or both ends were so tightly bolted in (misinstalled) that no rotational movement was available at the pivots and the shock was subsequently damaged (bent). But I seriously doubt (don't believe for a minute) that was the case here.

I'm sorry, but this fellow is.........misinformed. Please let me have his name so I may avoid him. Thank you in advance.

Thank you

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Dale, that is troubling. What you are suggesting is there is unlimited travel once the shock mount breaks and the air bag is ripped apart due to excessive front axle travel.

I will have to get under my bus and see what I can see, but I can't believe the times I have had my front axle hanging it was kept from dropping to the floor by either the air bag or the shock. I replaced air bags, shocks, and brake shoes on my 87 and in each case I believe I left the front axle hanging. I replaced air bags on my coach and helped Roger with his, and the front axle was hanging both times, but I honestly did not notice if the shocks were all that were holding it. I know it wasn't the air bags because they were off.

I still think the mechanic was blowing smoke and I still stick with my theory that the shocks that broke had insuffient travel.

FWIW I raise my coach front end to the fullest extent to clear the transition from the upslope to the garage floor. During that time the coach passes a driveway section that has an irregularity to channel water. The coach rocks sideways slightly and I have not broken a shock yet.