Behold: A Dettached Shock Absorber (A.K.A. Spring Beam, Apparently)

[Marceps]

I present to you my shock absorbers--one normal, one dettached. I found the dettached one this way after performing a pre-trip inspection today. It must have become dettached last night.

How urgent of a problem do you think this is? Have you ever seen it before? How might it be prevented? As I have no on-hand means of mending this, and repair shops are closed, I have decided to continue on my journey...

[Spaznaut]

So you don't have a clue how long it has been like that? I'd hate to lose it on the road and maybe take out a back tire or two. Or a vehicle behind you. Best bet is to replace both sides but I guess your ready to head out the door. Any issues with the mounting point or does it look like the shock broke?

[ewo1]

Unbolt or cut it off and keep on trucking.
Fix at the next place you can get it done.

[Marceps]

Good point about unbolting it, ewo1.

Originally Posted by Spaznaut

So you don't have a clue how long it has been like that?

Originally Posted by Marceps

It must have become dettached last night.

[magnakansas]

but, my first thought is

that shock is too short in the extended length to be correct for this application.

But

as I am thinking about this... I have to wonder if there is, or was any problem or action involving ride height and the air springs system that over extended the shock absorber and ripped it apart... i mean that upper eye is all the way wrung out. holy moly. I dont know of any air spring system that has limiting straps to prevent over extension of the shocks....

I have seen suspension limiting straps in specialty car/truck suspensions, but those are not the usual case.

is there undiagnosed problem that caused this problem?

william

[Marceps]

That is a good eye and an excellent line of questioning, as the height-control valve has been temporarily bypassed. In other words, the bus rides with air springs fully extended.

But would a fully extended air spring be tall enough to rip apart a shock absorber? And if so, why was the shock absorber fine for 1,400 miles--and why is the other shock absorber still OK?

I want to correct the height-control valve as soon as possible but do not have an address to which parts can be sent. In other words, I have to keep moving!

[flattracker]

That one shock was the FIRST failure, does the other one fail soon?


I would restore the height control valve right away. With them disabled, you effectively eliminate most of the give in the suspension. I would expect your bus is too high in the rear. If the too tall airbags can rip your shock apart then other damage is possible. If your airbags are iffy, you could risk a burst airbag, especially on the side without the shock. Driving my "new Crown" On California roads has shown me that you need real good suspension on your bus, along with real good control even on the interstate. (think the I-5 viaduct north of Sacramento)

When you do put things back to using the leveling valves, be careful under your bus to assure you won't get trapped underneath while doing it as your bus will drop to the lowest level it can. Do one side at a time.



I don't wish to sound harsh but I consider your situation to be a safety problem and I would not want to hear that you lost control of you bus and someone got hurt.


As for leveling valves I have bought them before and they cost me about $45. I would expect that a NAPA store keeps them in stock. Also Fleetpride. Truckstops that have shops would have them also. Think TA

[magnakansas]

Yea there is more than enough force. Other shock is likely to fail. I would like to see what kind of axle movement at 60mph on the side with the broken shock. I would not be surprised to see that side of the axle bouncing like a basket ball going down the road.

I have used air springs in an emergency situation to lift ten tons about four inches. High risk move but it worked. Lucky the bag didn’t rupture but a person was trapped and high risk of losing an arm due to no blood flow.


William

[Marceps]

Thank you for the input. I have decided to stay put until resolving the issue.

I have a spare height-control valve, but its fittings are smaller than the plastic-bodied one that cracked in the first place (Haldex 612 series). I will need some adapters.

I will also need to crimp a hose fitting to a currently bare hose. The fittings already on the bus's hoses are external and spin freely (unless they've become corrosion-welded to their accompanying ball rings). The ball rings are crimped on the hoses. I thought this was a common fitting style, but I've only been able to find info for barbed fittings.

I also found an interesting fitting style that requires no crimping. Does it look like an OK substitute?

Anyway, if someone could point out useful resources for crimping the aforementioned fitting style, I'd sure be grateful. I will try to get a photo in the meantime.

[Dirtdoctor]

Heres what happens. Driving the bus before the airbags have fully inflated. I did the same thing when i was in a hurry. The shock becomes the short stick and breaks.

[Marceps]

See, now that makes sense to me. However, the shock absorber was damaged when the air springs were 100% inflated.

I started a separate thread for my air hose question.

[Johnthebusboy]

You could cap off the air line in question and install a shrader valves on each air spring. You would have set the ride height manually.
The weight of the bus doesn't vary much relative the gross weight so the ride height won't vary much. Been doing it this way for 17 years or so.

[Marceps]

That crossed my mind The main drawback (for me, at least) would be the inability to adjust ride height manually using the bus's own air system, but heck, a ball valve could take care of that, right?

Regardless, I already have that nice hand-me-down HCV (aforementioned). If I can't get it to work, Schrader valve it is. Thanks for reminding me.