Newell Gurus

Yeah, Glenn those do not look like they are 36 years old.

when you get here, we can have a close look at them. we could even take one off to look if needed.

lf your setup is the same as clarke's, then no need to take tires off to get at the airbag. they are totally done from inside the frame rail. two nuts on top and one big one on the bottom.

tom

Thanks Guy, Tom and Clarke. I will defer any air bag purchases.

yesterday i took one of the front 4 airbags off of glenn and laureen's 84. and yes, it is up on 4 22 ton jackstands...

interestingly enough, the front four airbags are different than the rear 4. i am taking one of the rear 4 off this morning but i am pretty sure they are the same bag as the one guy referred to in this thread. the front have a different mounting and air inlet than the rear.

the fronts are firestone W01-358-9447 or goodyear 1R11-066. had to do some minor investigation because one of the numbers was worn off the top plate. but in looking at the firestone catalog and confirming it by talking to firestone tech rep, it is this bag. you can look at the bellows(rubber bag and get a number), get the partial number on the top plate, and look at the diagrams along with a few measurements with a caliper and you know what bag it is. the goodyear drawing is better than the firestone in this case to figure it out.

the first front bag took me quite a while to get out. first of all, i am the size of sasquatch. and the bag mounts are virtually all on the inside of the frame rail. i will post some pictures later, but their was a nuance that made it hard to figure out how to get the bag out once the mounting nuts and bolts were out. next ones will be easier now that i know what to do.

i will also when i am done post what wrenches and sockets i used on this one.

later

tom

ends up the front airbag mounts had been modified to use the 9447 bag.  they torched two holes in the existing mount to do it.  the original holes are there and the 9039 bag i took off the rear this morning slides right up into the factory mount holes.  so we are going to put 9039's all the way around. 

much easier install. 

tom

Tom, once Glenn gets his electrical sorted out ask him to start a new post about this. Mainly how vulnerable are our coaches to high voltages if the alternator or regulator goes wacky and how can we prevent this from happening.
Happy birthday BTW.

i will, it blew so much stuff in the coach it was incredible.

i took the other 6 airbags out today. dirtiest i have been in years.....

tom

So, incandescent lamps are really just in line fuses... Ha !
I have learned a lot seeing what you, Clarke, Glenn and Larueen have done to their coach. I was mortified when I looked under my dash and saw the nest of wires. Totally not what I would expect of Newell, and now I see that their coach has exactly the same factory wiring work. You guys have given me the courage to pull our dash in the future.

Pulling that dash took the better part of two days.....not looking forward to putting it back together. It did, however, make it so much easier to check all the wiring for damage without having to crawl under the dash with the seats digging into your back.

installed all 8 airbags this morning. took me about 3.5 hours. we used the same bag front and rear..... firestone W01-358-9039

i got them at my local small town napa for about 125 bucks apiece plus tax. took them 4 days to get them.

i used all new mounting nuts, using a jam nut on the top stud that has the air inlet in it.

i also got all new air fittings and will fit up new airlines between bags. there are no ping tanks on their 84 and airlines on bags are 3/8 OD brake tubing. on monday i will put all the new air fittings on. i took a break after mounting all the bags.

in examining the bags, some were worse than others. the rear 4 had alot of cracking and the rubber was getting hard. the front 4 looked better but in examining them in the lower portion against the lower mounting plate where it folds in, there were some pretty deep cracks.

one of the tricks i used is to use the air isolation gauge set that alot of us have to check for air leaks and i hooked it up to my shop air and used one of the ends to blow the bag up in place to align it.

tom