| Author |
Message |
Geobus (4108gmc)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 12:24 pm: | |
I was starting to wonder if I was getting enough air dryer solvent/alcoh. into my air lines. I have a 4108 GMC with the original system, a screw on can. I found a clear container that fit and used it to see if it was doing something inside the can when the air compressor kicked in. It did nothing. I made sure there was about a 1/2in of fluid covering the end of the line and I tried it without is being covered. I drained the air tanks several times and pumped them back up. The air comp. turned on and off and nothing happened inside that container. The fluid was the same before and after.
Any ideas why I don't see bubbles or something?
Should I update to a newer drying system, if so what is being used?
Is there a good way, after making sure the tanks are drained of moisture, to make sure there isn't any moisture still in the lines? If so how do you get it out?
Thanks for the help and have a great day. |
Brian (Bigbusguy)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 2:42 pm: | |
Where do you use your bus and what time of year?
You may not need that type of dryer.
I would Install the type of air dryer the will remove water and oil contaminants with a desiccant cartridge and will purge the water and crap out the bottom every time the compressor cycles. And that one will keep the tanks dry but will take a trip or two for you to get all the water out of the tanks.
I have a Bendix AD9 Dryer and auto tank trains on my 4905 .
If you use your bus in sub zero temps I would buy a new Alcohol dryer to add on also.
Brian 4905 Klamath Falls Oregon |
dave4106
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 7:26 pm: | |
make sure your canister is sealed. if not, it won't suck any alchohol. and yes ,you should see aggitation in the canister |
BrianMCI
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 8:55 pm: | |
To be honest, I understand the working priciple behind alcohol dryers but the fact is, alcohol dryers haven't been installed on a regular basis since the advent of dessicant dryers.
If you can find a used bendix air dryer say an AD-2 AD-4 or AD-9, for a reasonable amount, they are fairly simple to rebuild and relatively straight-forward to install.
Your air system will have far fewer problems in the long run. Plus a wealth of information exists on these units. Any Bendix Rep. would be glad to point you in the right direction with the istallation.
Brian |
BrianMCI
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 17, 2005 - 12:35 am: | |
One other thing, if you do install an dessicant type air dryer, remove the alcohol dryer...
or at the very least do not use it...
The alcohol in it will turn the dessicant to sludge.
That tidbit is straight from Bendix.
Brian |
Geobus (4108gmc)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 17, 2005 - 10:32 am: | |
Thanks for the good info.
I haven't checked at Bendix or anyplace else, but does the new dryer just get put in where the old one was-or does it go somewhere else in the system?
Have a great day. |
Buswarrior (Buswarrior)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 17, 2005 - 1:19 pm: | |
Hello fans of unfrozen air systems.
First on the terminology, there are air dryers, which help remove moisture from the incoming pressurized air supply, and there are devices for adding alcohol antifreeze to the incoming moisture to lower its freezing point, called achohol evaporator or alcohol injector, depending on the model.
The old screw on containers are alcohol evaporators.
They are still in wide use up here in the frozen north, in conjunction with an air dryer.
An alchohol evaporator does not dry anything, it just evaporates alchohol into the incoming air to act as antifreeze. You still get the moisture build up in the tanks, just hopefully, it won't freeze.
If you are going to add an air dryer, you have to be careful that there is enough distance from the compressor to the dryer for the hot compressed air to cool, or it will quickly deteriorate the desicant. Bendix can help you with the minimum lengths of run. And you should provide a power line for the heating element to keep the purge valve from freezing...
(How many have removed their coach HVAC and not provided for the power to the air dryer heating element? Popularly is powered by the coach heating circuit....)
And, as noted by Brian, supplying alchohol to the air dryer will also quickly render the dryer ineffective.
Care needs to be taken, as there are buses out there that have an alcohol evaporator mounted ahead of the dryer. And I've seen brand new trucks arrive from the factory equipped that way... The alchohol device needs to be plumbed in after the dryer.
Can't trust anyone anymore....
happy coaching!
buswarrior |
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