Build Amphibious HEMTT

AgitatedPancake said:
Some air tools have basic little valves with knobs like those brass ones for decreasing flow on the air inputs. Pipe dope would probably work, or maybe that yellow electrical tape made for oil and gas? I believe it's supposed to be thicker stuff.

I know you're all about keeping it mechanical, but it sounds like a few ride height sensors and a controller could fix these problems right up and ignore the leaks :flipoff2:

Tank is rad, and that cable is funny. Maybe some sort of ground strap because it's not touching the ground?
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Can’t ignore leaks when I come back to the truck and it’s sitting crooked. I know it could level up when I start it, but OCD.
 
It might be a BSP-NPT mismatch in the threads. I use pipe sealant on all those. Wurth and CRC make stuff that works great.
 
AgitatedPancake said:
Pipe dope would probably work, or maybe that yellow electrical tape made for oil and gas? I believe it's supposed to be thicker stuff.
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I have to admit I didn’t think yellow stuff would make difference. I figured it was specially made for natural gas. But I had some of it and I didn’t have any of the other suggestions. So I tried it on my test piece. Sure enough, it didn’t leak after only moderately tightening it. (I previously made them so tight I was afraid of twisting them off.)

IMG_2510.jpeg


I installed the valves on the two rear bags. It was quite a bit more work because I had to remove the bag to get room to thread the valve on. I like em because I can just bend down and open or close the valve. I could do this with good clothes on.

IMG_2509.jpeg


I’m not sure how I want to do the front bags.they are not as easy to get at. I certainly couldn’t be wareing good clothes. I may try to put the valves in line.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
I gonna say this valve will be all for naught, as the air bags will probably still lose pressure over time.
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When I have just the shrader, they seem to hold air a lot longer if not indefinitely. I have traced most of the leaks to the control valves on my console.

Awhile back, I had one valve leak and replaced it. I took that one apart and found it to be very good construction. I also found one very small piece of hair on one of the o-rings. That is the only thing I found wrong. I’m not sure if that was the problem, but it’s suspicious. I don’t like the idea of something that small can screw them.

Every other control valve on the market looks to be of poorer quality.

I have to say, I’m surprised how much differnce the yellow Teflon tape makes. I’m sort of the opinion I’m go to use that on everything from now on.
 
WaterH said:
When I have just the shrader, they seem to hold air a lot longer if not indefinitely. I have traced most of the leaks to the control valves on my console.

Awhile back, I had one valve leak and replaced it. I took that one apart and found it to be very good construction. I also found one very small piece of hair on one of the o-rings. That is the only thing I found wrong. I’m not sure if that was the problem, but it’s suspicious. I don’t like the idea of something that small can screw them.

Every other control valve on the market looks to be of poorer quality.

I have to say, I’m surprised how much differnce the yellow Teflon tape makes. I’m sort of the opinion I’m go to use that on everything from now on.
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Did you not use any Teflon or thread sealant anywhere?
 
WaterH said:
I used the white Teflon everywhere when I built it. What I have found is the yellow tape is far superior.
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Ah I understand.

I like the blue or grey stuff personally :) Even thicker than the yellow
 
 
 
WaterH said:
Makes me wonder how I got this old and never heard of this stuff.
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The color doesn't mean anything with regard to formulation. I have "Mil Spec" PTFE tape that's white, and it's the same thickness as the yellow and pink "gas" PTFE tape I have from (who knows where :laughing: ). The thickness of the tape is what makes it different.
 
Well the yellow wasn’t thick enough. Both back valves leak. The rear was squatting this morning. WTF? I threaded them in another turn. They definitely won’t go in any more because they will run up against the housing. We’ll see tomorrow if that is it. I’m glad I didn’t screw with the front ones.

In other news, I made a measuring stick for when the truck is in the garage. It has the height of the front and rear bumpers marked where I like them. It gives me about 4” of up travel on the suspension. That is the most I can have and still have good handling manners at speed. More than that is good for off road, but gets hard to steer at highway speeds. Less than that drives good, but I can’t hit much of a bump without bottoming out. I can walk around with the stick and adjust the bags real easy.
 
WaterH said:
Well the yellow wasn’t thick enough. Both back valves leak. The rear was squatting this morning. WTF? I threaded them in another turn. They definitely won’t go in any more because they will run up against the housing. We’ll see tomorrow if that is it. I’m glad I didn’t screw with the front ones.
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Soapy water and check the bag themselves aren't leaking?
 
Bebop said:
Soapy water and check the bag themselves aren't leaking?
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I hope not. I just ordered a spare and they want $400 for one bag. I know they didn’t cost that much when I bought them the first time. It’s like every other bag cost from $50-$100, but mine has to cost $400.

Anyways, the drivers side rear system was leaking up front, so I had it unplugged at the bag for a month now. It had no leaks during that time. The pax side had no leaks anywhere since new. After installing the valves, both leak. The valves were shut, so it has to leak at the threads or the bags developed leaks when I was screwing with them. That’s not impossible because I had to remove the top mount to install the valve.

There were some cracks in the rubber that prompted me to order the spare. I sprayed glass cleaner on them and didn’t see any bubbles, but I didn’t do a good job of it.

I’m really hopping to go out there this morning and find it sitting correct. (Fingers crossed)
 
1Sinner said:
Wait til you find the silver stuff meant for high temp stainless pipe fittings that's impregnated with nickel so it also acts as anti seize..... And it's also super thick.
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I really thought you were BS ing me, but google proved you right.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
I gonna say this valve will be all for naught, as the air bags will probably still lose pressure over time.
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Should hold for at least a week. My 1993 Range Rover on air-bags is still at the same height it was parked at last week.
 
Weird Electrical issue Bebop can make fun of me on. I’d like an explanation.

This might be hard to describe.
I have a thermostat switch that connects to ground when the radiator water gets hot. I also have a switch on the dash that sends ground when flipped. Both of these send ground to an isolated bus bar. This bus bar has three things that get ground from it.
1. The intercooler pump.
2. The intercooler fan.
3. The relay that turns on the radiator fan. (Just the relay, not the fan)

All of these are wired hot on the other side, so they come on with either the thermostat or the dash switch.

The other day I got home and shut off the truck. Because the radiator water was still hot, the thermostat switch had all three things running. (It’s easy to hear the rad fan) For whatever reason, I switched the dash switch on and the rad fan got faster. This doesn’t make sense to me. The rad fan doesn’t get its power or ground from this dash switch. Only the relay gets ground from it. I never heard of a relay making a better connection from a better ground. It only works or it doesn’t.
 
If I'm understanding the setup right - Are the only grounds for the higher amperage intercooler pump and intercooler fan coming straight through the thermostat switch? No relays for them like you have for the rad fan?

If so, it sounds like you may be trying to pull a good amount of current through that thermostat connection. Is the main ground wire from thermostat to chassis getting hot (overloaded)?

edit - also the main rad fan relay, is it completing the positive side or negative side of the fan? Is the rad fan's main high current ground independent of all the rest of these?
 
AgitatedPancake said:
If I'm understanding the setup right - Are the only grounds for the higher amperage intercooler pump and intercooler fan coming straight through the thermostat switch? No relays for them like you have for the rad fan?

If so, it sounds like you may be trying to pull a good amount of current through that thermostat connection. Is the main ground wire from thermostat to chassis getting hot (overloaded)?

edit - also the main rad fan relay, is it completing the positive side or negative side of the fan? Is the rad fan's main high current ground independent of all the rest of these?
Click to expand...

I can’t remember if the pump and intercooler fan is direct, but they are not high current. Maybe they are too much current for the thermostat. If that was the case, I would think they might run faster with an extra ground, but the part that I don’t get is the rad fan. It has its own ground and gets power from the relay. So the power connection seems to get better with a better ground on the relay. I just never heard of that.
 
WaterH said:
I can’t remember if the pump and intercooler fan is direct, but they are not high current. Maybe they are too much current for the thermostat. If that was the case, I would think they might run faster with an extra ground, but the part that I don’t get is the rad fan. It has its own ground and gets power from the relay. So the power connection seems to get better with a better ground on the relay. I just never heard of that.
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Is it possible the relay is buzzing and you may just not hear it? It would be interesting to see voltage on the main power wire before and after the relay with the fan running on the thermostat, then voltage before and after the relay with your manual toggle switched
 
1Sinner said:
I would say the ground is overloaded and generating heat without the switch on. Heat increases current, reduces available voltage, and so the fan runs slower. Multiple paths to ground remove the heat load, increase the voltage and all the fan to run at speed.
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That all makes sense to me if it were the intercooler fan that ran faster with more ground, but a relay? Like pancake says, maybe my relay is humming and I can’t hear it. I’m going to unhook the rad fan and try it. That way I can hear what’s going on. Got to get my tractor fixed before messing with it.
 
I mentioned buzzing the first time around. Throw a manual switch in there and see if the issues go away.
 
bdkw1 said:
I mentioned buzzing the first time around. Throw a manual switch in there and see if the issues go away.
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Instead of the relay on the rad fan? That would require a lot of heavy wire. (They draw a lot of current)
 
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