[Mark]

ok with my 1/2 set up would it be worth it to get 5/8 lines so i have the 1/2 id? or settle for 1/2 line that has 3/8 id? will there be a diffrence?

and with gauges what do you feel is the best size line to run for those? i would think SMALL so it takes less air to read and takes less air from the bag lines so it goes up faster?

 

[M-827]

I was looking into the 5/32" idea that I got from 216RIDER (for gauge lines). I gave up looking for the air line to do it with (I'm in the UK).

I expect the difference in gauge reading reaction time would have no real benefit in the real world.

I was also looking into 5/8" line for 1/2" valves and gave up on that idea too when it turned out to be awkward finding fittings.

So, I'm sticking with 1/2" valves, 1/2" lines and 1/4" gauge lines.

 

[Mark]

anymore input?

 

[Mark]

where would i run the air line for my gauges?

 

[M-827]

I'm going to run the air line for my gauges through the inside of the car, coming from the solenoid valve area, through the rear bulkhead, under the rear seat, then along the side of the transmission tunnel and up the front bulkhead to the gauges under the dashboard.

 

[Mark]

Originally posted by M-827@Nov 18 2003, 04:56 PM
I'm going to run the air line for my gauges through the inside of the car, coming from the solenoid valve area, through the rear bulkhead, under the rear seat, then along the side of the transmission tunnel and up the front bulkhead to the gauges under the dashboard.

are you pulling up your carpet?

 

[Tuna_Sammich]

I ran mine under the carpet, right behind the door sill plate.

 

[Mark]

what line size should i use for the gauges?

 

[Tuna_Sammich]

use 1/4" or smaller, the smaller the better really

 

[Mark]

how much more smaller is 1/8 than 1/4



Last edited by Mark at Nov 19 2003, 06:32 AM

 

[1lorodeo]

smaller is way easier to run and as long as air is in the line its gunna read a psi i went with 1/4 and ran it inside but it was kinda tricky to bend in some places without trying to kink the thing

 

[Mark]

how about 1/8 isnt that smaller? than 1/4

 

[Tuna_Sammich]

1/4" = .250
1/8" = .125

 

[M-827]

Originally posted by Mark@Nov 18 2003, 08:21 PM

are you pulling up your carpet?

On my car, to do the wiring (and soon the gauge lines) it is a 'carpet-up' job:

First I removed the back seat. I know you aren't asking this, but I'll tell you anyway :cheesy: : On my car you just get your hands down the back of the base cushion and pull it up and forwards, then unhook the frame from the brackets on the lower forward edge (nearest the rear floor). That allows you to undo two bolts at the base of the seat back, and then you lift it up and off the two top mounting hooks

Then I removed the sill plates and B-post trim which allowed me to lift the carpet and feed the wires under it, alongside the transmission tunnel. Because my car hasn't got much of a step at the sills I went alongside the transmission tunnel to keep things out of the way.

I got away without having to remove the front bench seat, I just worked under it from both sides.

Things to be careful with:

Make sure that the route you choose for your lines will not allow them to get squashed or hit etc. When I ran my wires through the rear seat area I payed attention to where the seat frame rested. I ended up making some protective pads out of soundproofing material to protect the wiring (and will apply to gauge line) if and when the seat it in use.

I had to unbolt the seat belt mountings to get the carpet up too. My wires ran close to the mountings, so I had to make sure that the mountings didn't damage anything when they were bolted back in. Make sure you bolt them back in properly.

With your gauge line, make sure that you don't bend it too sharply when working it round bends.

 

[Mark]

THANK YOU!!! that was a good read...gives me a heads up :biggrin:

and the wires your talking about....is that for your switches?
what wires need to be ran in the car to give power to the valves?
does anyone have a diagram for this? like the power wire,slinoied and where the power gos to the valves and switches :biggrin: this would be a big help to know

 

[Mark]

hummm is there a 1/8 npt femal to 1/2 npt male reducer?

 

[Mark]

Originally posted by 216RIDER@Nov 19 2003, 04:06 PM
1/4" = .250
1/8" = .125

what size line do you use for you gauges? its like a crazy number if i remember :biggrin:

 

[M-827]

Right, I've got some time to spare, so I'll write as much as I can for you:

For the air suspension I ran 11 wires through my car, which were:

2 wires of 12 gauge. These are for compressors. I am only having one compressor, but I thought I'd put in another whilst everything was apart, just in case I need it for a future upgrade.

9 wires of 16 gauge. 8 of these are for the solenoid valves (4 for inflate, 4 for deflate), plus one spare in case I need it for something else, like a light or something.

This may help you: My Oldsmobile is a full size car - 18ft long. My wire lengths were 18ft, and this allowed plenty of length to run from the right hand rear corner of the boot (trunk), through into the rear seat area above the right hand rear wheel area, down the rear seat back area, across towards the transmission tunnel, along the tunnel and up the front bulkhead to under the dash, plus about a foot over to give me some choice where to put my switches.

Obviously you will need a power supply from your fuse box to the switches, then the switches will operate your solenoids via the 8 wires to the rear (assuming your valves are going to be on your air tank like mine). The 18ft wire length was an estimate that turned out okay!

I also found that 15ft of wire was fine for my stereo wiring to the rear, following the same route from under the dashboard but finishing up under the rear shelf, and not going right to the back of the boot (trunk). I have 2 rear speaker wires, one amplifier supply wire (heavy gauge - a proper one!), one amplifier control wire and a pair of RCA leads (to go to the amp). You must separate the amp power supply lead from the speaker wires and RCA leads, it may cause interference. For this reason I ran the amp supply wire down one side of the trasmission tunnel with the 2 compressor wires, 8 solenoid (+1 spare) wires, then ran all the audio wires down the other side. This set up is for 2 6x9 speakers on the rear shelf, plus an amplifier in the boot (trunk) to power a sub. The wiring for the front door speakers was about 9ft, and is plenty long enough to reach the doors + some extra to play with. I taped up the ends of my RCA leads so that they didn't get dirt in them when I ran them under the carpet.

To arrange the air suspension wires was a bit of a job! I just bought one length of each gauge to the total required length, then measured out 3ft on my bench. Next - without forgetting as I counted - I counted up 6 x 3ft = 18ft and cut the wire off each time. After a while I had I nice tangle on the floor! Then I gathered all the wires and taped them at one end and spent ages straightening them into a reasonably tidy arrangement of 11 strands. Next I worked from the taped end and cable-tied them together with ties about every 18 inches. Finally, I removed the tape from the end and attached a masking tape tag to each wire at each end. On one end I labelled them according to the valves, so I had:

flp, fld, frp, frd, rlp, rld, rrp, rrd, plus the spare which was labelled 's'. Note: f=front, r=rear, l=left, r=right, p=pump and d=dump, so for example rld=rear left dump, i.e. to the rear left deflation solenoid)

The two heavy 12 gauge wires were labelled c1 & c2 (c = compressor).

Here's a good tip: Don't attach your tape tags right near the end because they will be in the way when you wire up. Put the on maybe 8 or 9 inches down at each end. I did mine a bit too close to the ends! You need to leave your tags on for future reference, once the wiring is installed (I also labelled my speaker wires in the same way).

When that lot was done I had to find the other ends of each wire amongst the group and label each one correctly. For this I used a continuity tester (a multimeter, set to detect a circuit). Then I held one meter lead onto a labelled wire at one end, then touched the other meter lead onto each of the unlabelled wires at the other end until I got a reading. This meant that I had found the other end of the wire! So, I simply wrote the same code onto the the other end of the wire, eg, 'fld' or whatever it happened to be. After all that fun I had something usable to run through the car!

I took a picture of my wires before I installed them (what a great subject to photograph!). I have just uploaded it to my cardomain.com pages so you can see what I'm on about - it's on page 3 (use the link in my signature section below).

Hope this helps

:cheesy:

 

[Mark]

ok, i got lost in your write up, but i thank you very much for it.

my set it is a prewired 10 switch box, 12 gallon tank with 8 ports, 8 1/2 valves and a york air compressor.

 

[M-827]

Originally posted by Mark@Nov 19 2003, 10:40 PM
ok, i got lost in your write up. . . .

So did I :biggrin: !

Your set-up sounds very similar to 216RIDER's. Have a look on his website.

Your wiring will be different from mine, but basically you are still going to have the same solenoid wires and have to connect your switch box to those, so my wiring details would be the same as yours - if your tank is going to be in the back. Then you would wire your switch box into the solenoid wires where they come up under the dashboard.

There are other ways of doing this though. What I was planning on having was 4 standard switches with the gauges on the dashboard, like in a typical kit. These I would have for everyday use. Then I was going to wire in a 10 switch box, via a connector plug, so that I could plug it in when I wanted to and have the extra moves available. Then I could unplug it again when not needed to keep things tidy.

I'm going to get one of those remote control kits now, but I'm still going to have 4 standard switches on the dashboard for normal use - just in case I break my remote controller or something!