Class system woes

[van avery]

I’m rejuvenation a 85 Venture Royale and having problems keeping the air pressure in the class systems. Both front and back shocks will lose about ½ of the pressure overnight. Finally tracked it down to the solenoids in the compressor manifold has slow/small leaks in all of the solenoids. I have already used the steel wool on the dowel rod to clean the small nipples and still have leaks. The bike was dormant for about 9 years. I already did the piston ring spacer and that worked great for the lack of compressor pressure.

Looking at the little black rubber tips on the solenoids there is a small round indentation that I think is causing the leaks. I don’t see where you can buy replacement rubber tips for these. Does anyone have a source for them or a good way to refurbish? I heated one of them up carefully with a heat gun and tried sanding with 1000 grit sand paper and slightly stretching the spring and it seemed to help.

[Marcarl]

The indent on the rubbers is not an issue, but spring tension would be. Glad you did the steel wool trick, but it might take some more work there. Not sure you did the rubber any good by 'sanding' it off, any wee little scour marks will let air through. I would look at replacing the springs, although giving them a little stretch might get you by. Not sure how much stretch may be too much, but you can do a trial and error. If you have a spring manufacturer in your area, you might try them. Springs are made by wire size and turns mostly, so it would be helpful to have an original to compare with.

When I did my towers, I used 000 steel wool on the end of a wood dowel and put it in a drill to get the job done. Wrap the steel wool on the dowel, tape the end in place with black tape half way up the dowel, making sure that the business end was well covered. The finished surface needs to be perfectly smooth, no marks at all,,,, use a magnifying glass to check, and make sure you use brake clean and lots of air before re-assembly.

[van avery]

Thanks I'll give it a try.

[Black wing]

i would be pulling all the lines and replacing the o-rings in the fittings, if they crack you will lose air that way. if you find your solenoids are shot let me know ive got a pile of them here.

[van avery]

Believe I'm going to give up on the class system. Currently I've slowed the leaks down, I pulled the solenoids cleaned and stretched the springs and re-soldered the controller several times. The system will work for a short time then give me a E1 or E4 it even gave me a E6 this evening.

I have checked/ cleaned the connecters, run parallel wires, pulled the controller from My 87 ) and still it will not work consistently.

I pulled the Schrader connections from my 83 parts bike, and I think several days working on it are enough.

Had to install a spacer in the compressor ring ( worked great by the way) and system will pump up fine ( when it wants to).

I begin to wonder if the pressure sensor has an internal problem. I have checked the voltage at several places per the manual and they seem to be right.

Thanks

[paysaw]

I had the same problems with my controller.I never cursed at something so much until i discovered something.I had a bad harness connector to the back of my main controller.I snipped the wires and put on another one from a donor unit and have not had a problem since.I have a spare complete pump system if you want it and will pay for shipping from Canada.