Thread: Popped a Gen III today

Just a side-note, I was travelling in high (so that limits my speed to under 60) however it was still your average run of the mill gravel road. I had been low range 4wding about 30 mins prior but nothing extreme.

The rest of my suspension is standard (ie no long travel shocks or anything like that).

Well done removing that top R-clip with a screwdriver mate.

Had the same happen to me a couple of years ago, except the car was standing still and parked on my driveway so I had the convenience of the tools in my garage

I have a theory why 80% of popped air-springs I see or hear of are the right rear.

The spring mount on the rear diff is angled back slightly more on the right than the left, meaning that the RR air spring angles back more when the car is raised. On the original Hard Range lift kit this was very noticeable, so we changed the design of the rear spacers to give the base of the spring a forward angle. As the car lifts and the rear diff rotates back, the base of the springs also rotate back. Any weakness in the seal of the air spring will get worse... you know the rest

Cheers, Paul.

Good work carrying the spare and changing in the field Keithy. Reminds me to put a spare bag in my 4wding kit. Leaving them at home is no real use...

I am working in Moranbah all of December, and doing the Ironman in Cairns in Jun, I wonder if I cant get to Townsville sometime and catch you up for a beer.

You have a good point Paul, i was checking out the angles once I replaced the bag.

Sounds good to me glen, let me know and I'll make sure the fridge is full.

Have you got a picture of the failed bag there Keith? You had one of you originals go bang too didn't you? Seems strange the way it failed this time and it was pretty new, your exhaust isn't running close to it or something? Should send it to Arnott and ask for some diagnosis on it... Was it the same failure as your other one? I've heard 'people' say a bag failure on a good bag shouldn't be any more common than a snapped curly...

How old we're the bags? You did well to be able to fix in 20 mins out in the field! Where on earth do you find the space to carry 3 spare bags? With the rest of the gear and usually 4 people in the car 3 air bags would be tough to fit in!
Gary

The bag that went pop was 8 months old, the failure was different to last time (old bag was tired and a sharp stick finished the job). I'm not sure what the guts of the Arnotts bags look like but I can gather from the rattle inside that a clamp or something has let go on me!

I store my spare bags in the spare under the rear floor, wrapped in an old towel for rattle prevention. Seeing as my 255/70 only just fits in there (when fully deflated) I don't have the styrofoam jack holder in there, I simply wrap it up in an old towel and stash it in there too.

I rekon it pays to remove the pins that secure your bags annually, clean them off and put them back in. I removed top and bottom ones with my fingers, made life much easier.

I can't upload pics by iPhone but I can email them to someone to post up?

email them to me mate and I'll put them up on the gallery at paulp38a.com and link to them here.

if you don't already know my personal address, it is my <first_name>@<last_name>.net or use the Hard Range one...