Isolating Air Leaks
The past few months has been the time for me to pick away at life's little annoyances relative to the coach. I have extended my engine fuel primer, added a back-up water pump, added inverter by pass switches, upgraded the dash radio and added a CD changer with a large magazine, replaced my Norgren valves and rebuilt the solenoid valves, and most recently took the first step to find an auxiliary air leak that has all of a sudden shown up.
The bus auxiliary air system is essentially house components and bus components. On my coach the house or converter installed air operated items are the sliding floor, dump valves, bed lift, pocket doors, generator air bags, air horns, seat, etc. The bus auxiliary air components include the suspension, belt tensioners, etc.
As anyone can see isolating an air leak is a major task, and it is something that can require hours of effort. My first step in chasing leaks therefore is to be able to narrow the search. To do that I decided to cut my current and future effort in that regard in half. I added valves to the house or converter installed air lines so with all house air turned off I know if my leak is in the house side of things or the bus side. I could have added one valve for the entire house, but as long as all house air circuits were in one spot I added a valve for each circuit with the exception of the air horns. The air horn circuit has the solenoid valve right there easy to see and access so I did not feel I needed it.
The picture is of a Liberty, but in case other converters have used a manifold arrangement similar to this one, the concept would work for other coaches.
Since installing my shut off valves I know my aux system air leak is on the bus side of things.
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