Hello all,

Just about nearing the completion of full restoration of the rear subframe. Therefore all the air suspension was deflated using the gap tool and the rear airbags were disconnected and removed.

The car fully off the ground on very substantial axle stands, I have not touched the front bags (yet).

Will it be OK to re inflate the system with the car off the ground ie no weight on the suspension or bags?

Thanks

Kevin

Click image to enlarge

Cannot give a definitative answer to your question but if you did a 4 wheel lift normally with pressure in the bags the suspension would droop to its lowest position normally so I would assume exactly the same would occur if you reinflated in your current mode.

Having done a deflation/inflation this weekend to allow me to replace the front suspension arms I did find with the GAP iiD tool that the engine needs to be running to do both deflation and inflation. I tried to deflate without starting the engine and got Error 0 with no other explanation so started the engine and all worked.

Nice looking job on the subframe - on my list to do. Did you just lower it or take it off the vehicle completely? 2011 4.4 TDV8

Yep, it'll be fine - BUT, don't expect the car to support itself as all it will do is inflate the bags to the gallery pressure, once the load is on the air suspension it will drop to the bump stops. When we do this on a lift, we inflate, then introduce some (i.e.) not full load by lowering the vehicle onto axle stands or wheels, allow the suspension to re-level, then carry on doing whatever else needs to be done.

Nice looking job on the subframe - on my list to do. Did you just lower it or take it off the vehicle completely?[/quote]

Yes, fully dropped the subframe to do a full restoration. Just about finished the rear before turning to replacing the front ball joints in the knuckles. It’s been quite a job, just hope it’s all going to worth it😁

Click image to enlarge

I just did my fronts - all arms and joints. I posted yesterday about the tool/method I used to remove the ball joints in the knuckle if you are interested.

I found my heavy duty Sykes Pickavant ball joint splitter was a little narrow in the jaws to fit the large taper of the suspension ball joints. It needed to be opened up a couple of millimetres to get it to go on.

I then used a scriber/pick to clean the rust out of the T50 headed screws which hold the ball joint in to the knuckle, used the best T50 bit I had on and then used a G clamp or similar to hold the ratchet tightly in to the screw so it did not 'cam out' when torque applied (just a little bit of slack on the G clamp to allow the first crack of the screw).

If you look at my post and want to use the 'saddles' I made then you can have them for the postage and as one of the contributors on that thread suggested you can use the thread of the baaljoint to do the extraction without needing a puller. 2011 4.4 TDV8

Phoenix wrote:

Yep, it'll be fine - BUT, don't expect the car to support itself as all it will do is inflate the bags to the gallery pressure, once the load is on the air suspension it will drop to the bump stops. When we do this on a lift, we inflate, then introduce some (i.e.) not full load by lowering the vehicle onto axle stands or wheels, allow the suspension to re-level, then carry on doing whatever else needs to be done.

[quote="Wiltshire130"]I just did my fronts - all arms and joints. I posted yesterday about the tool/method I used to remove the ball joints in the knuckle if you are interested.

I saw your post and read it with great interest. My plan is to remove the knuckle as I want to ensure I don’t have the same problem with the ABS reluctor rings on the front that I had with the rear. With the knuckle removed replacement of the ball joint should be more straight forward.🤞 Kevin
2012 L322 Westminster 4.4 TDV8
1999 P38A 4.0 SE - Sold