A3 Air/Steering Issue

[flyBURopTIK]

When I had done some driving of the truck on base, everything seemed fairly normal. When it showed up at home, I seemed to have some issues with the air fault alarm not going off after having let it idle up for roughly 20 min.

After having done some troubleshooting, it seems as though the Drag Link on my A3 seems to be leaking air (From what I can tell with the soapy water test it looks like its starting right arround where the band is, thats infront of the 2 output hoses on the bottom?)

Has anyone else bumped into this issue?
Ideas?

Thanks,
OpD

 

[jimmcld]

I've never heard of anyone having a problem with this before. Your probably in virgin territory. If someone knows what company manufactured the "air-assist", maybe you could find a drawing from them. Can't be too complicated...............

 

[mktopside]

Ouch. Virgin territory is right!

Good luck, let us know what works.

 

[treessw]

 

[lonegunman]

In a pinch there is an air valve on the firewall that will shut the entire air steering downa nd make it a manual steer truck. Looke like either the hoses leak or the fittings need to be remioved, resealed and reinserted. This is probably in the TM for the truck someplace. If it is a hose, any hose shop should be able to make a replacement for a reasonable price.

Keep use posted. Several of the modded deuce guys have air steering as well, you could post there and ask if they everhad problems. As far as A3's mine has been trouble free, I do watch for chaffing on the hoses though.

 

[AceHigh]

Lonegunman is right, for troubleshooting just turn the air to the unit off. Unless it is leaking a lot the steering may not be your problem. the compressor puts out quite a lot of air.

When you shut the truck down do you hear an air leak? Is the CTIS turned off?

 

[flyBURopTIK]

Yea, the valve on the firewall is how I approached my testing...

I closed it all the way & fired the truck back up, roughly a minute later the air fault cleared, pressure gage goes over 90 psi, CTIS started pumping up the tire in the back with the slow leak, and CTIS reported a manifold pressure of roughly 35psi.
When I reopened the valve, the air fault indicator came right back. Since the fan on the crank kicks out alot of air, feeling around for air movement seemed pointless to me & I resorted to the soapy water in the pic...

Im thinking of putting some teflon tape on the bottom 2 hoses, but the more I think about it the less that seems plausable since they both seem to converge into 1 tube which has a break in it & goes into the engine compartment (Im thinking this may go into a PCV valve or something seemingly unrelated that doesnt really need pressurized air). Recalling to driving around on the base, the steering did seem jerky -So Im thinking of reversing the hoses to & from the air assist cylinder to see if that clears things up?

 

[Rustygears]

The converging hoses are the exhaust hoses. The intake is a single hose and there are two hoses to the ram itself - 4 hoses total.

The load sensor may have a sticking point where it leaks across from intake to exhaust. MAny members have been successful pouring a little Marvel Mystery oil or air tool lube into the intake and then reconnecting to flush and lube the drag link load sensing valve. This will often fix a sticky valve and there are many threads in this forum you can find through search that will say the same. I was very successful using that tip.

Also, I thought my load sensing valve was leaking, but it was actually the little POS regulator mounted on the 'C' frame channel just across from the load sensor. These things (also many threads) are a common fail point and leak massively. Smme folks replace, others just bypass. There is a threaded cover with a little hole on the bottom. if you place your finger over the hole, you can tell if it is leaking or not.

The original manufacturer is still in business and I believe is in Michigan. They still sell and service the parts and sell these same systems for other trucks. I found them through a link in an old thread. They are on the Web and have a complete web page.

 

[flyBURopTIK]

Ill have to give the oil thing & popping the regulator off a try... Should a once over work (Can you give it too much?), or is this something one should do a few times? I ask since I dident have the greatest luck with a search string of 'marvel' & 'A3 power steering' (Although I did find a similar thread that even had you in it =) )

Do you know if theres a diagram of this thing around anywhere? Im kinda curious on the whole load sensor piece.

Did a lil searching at the DLA for this part (The drag link, NSN 2530014061959) & it looks like this was made by Sycon (after some google'n, it doesnt seem like theyre in the truck parts biz anymore) and Maradyne (www.maradyne.com Looks like this page just hops arround to their other brands) -P/N 83504-1 for both

The regulator (NSN 4820014325914) looks to also have been made by Maradyne & Sycon -P/N 81033-1 for both

Just incase someone else bumps into the same issue here

Thanks,
OpD

 

[gimpyrobb]

A better search would be "air assist steering".

 

[flyBURopTIK]

lol Robb My results with that'un are about the same, but I did reread Rusty's previous post regarding how many times to do this -So one less answer to wait for... =)

Thanks

 

[Rustygears]

I did the oil bit 3 times and noticed that after time 1 & 2 a big improvement in how the air-o-matic system worked. That is the Sycon trade name. They still sell & repair this system - at least they did in December when I was looking for answers like you are now. The oil stopped a slow leak from the valve which I could tell from how long the truck held pressure after shutdown with the little s
Petcock open and then closed, isolating the steering system. The biggest culprit was that POS regulator hiding in the frame. It leaked like a sob! After replacing it an oiling the steering is easy and air use low.

 

[jatonka]

Maradyne Corp is in Cleveland Ohio. They are the maker of Air-O-Matic air assist steering and are still in business. I haven't had a problem with the drag link valve on any of my deuces but I expect a person could take it apart and reseal it if it were leaking. I have found the manufacturer of the POS regulators that sit inside the frame rail and seem to leak often. The regulator is not expensive and after installing a new one on each of the deuces that came from the Military with air assist, I have not had any more trouble. I think people had no clue on how to adjust the black regulator without breaking it. JT out

 

[Rustygears]

I agree regarding adjusting the reg. I replaced mine with the original NOS Norgren from fleabay and found there was no way to measure the pressure, so I rigged a schrader valve. I have a thread posted with pictures describing it.

 

[flyBURopTIK]

Rusty, Is that regulator the one that has what looks like yellow on the input & output sides? I was just thinking of chucking whats in there now & plumbing arround it, but if its what Im thinking -Ill copy what you did for a replacement in the other thread? =)

Thanks!
OpD

 

[AceHigh]

It is easy to see if you follow the air line from the firewall down to the drag link. Looks kind of like a whisky jigger in size, most are black. I just took the two on my trucks off and put in a small straight pipe using brass fittings from Lowes.

These are mostly a commercial unit used on over the road tractors with higher air pressure.

 

[Rustygears]

The stock reg is jet black and has a cylindrical metal cover that threads over the whole body. You have to unscrew that cover and slide off to gain access to the press adj knob. The two units I've seen fail were leaking from the adj knob area. My prior thread post has pix so you can Id it. The reg is on the driver side, inside the frame 'C' channel just opposite the drag link Assy and beneath the air compressor. I originally thought the compressor unloader was leaking from the sound when the engine was off due to the location - seemed logical enough at the time. It wasn't until I shut the steering air supply petcock to see if the steering load sensor valve was leaking that I realized it wasn't the unloader but something else.

 

[flyBURopTIK]

Ok, so the one you used isnt the same as stock...

Makes sence, bells started ringing for me when you said norgren & I remembered seeing one on ebay for the A3 which I dident think was related, but as long as that part Im thinking of is doable for that application -I might as well go score one & put it on while Im munkey'n arround down there =)

 

[Rustygears]

I replaced original (broken) stock with NOS Norgren regulator in GI packaging. It had NSN. I added schrader valve to gauge port for setting secondary side pressure. other than that, dead stock.

 

[greg burns]

Norgren Regulator

I replaced original (broken) stock with NOS Norgren regulator in GI packaging. It had NSN. I added schrader valve to gauge port for setting secondary side pressure. other than that, dead stock.

Rustygears:
I'm having similar issues with my A3. I searched Ebay for the Norgren regulator. The search produced multiple pages of results. Searching by the NSN on Ebay produced no results. Do you have any idea which model of the regulator is a replacement on the A3? The listings on the search seem to run as high as $300!

Thanks.

greg