Getting this thing installed was a bitch. It fits as shown, but getting it in while bolted to the ABS tray was a challenge. There really wasn't any way to install the tray first, then bolt the compressor in, so it (the compressor) was partially disassembled as shown. The missing bolt shown above was installed after the rest of the job was complete - I had to drill a matching hole in the flange the ABS tray sits on top of, but forgot to take a picture of it at the time. Bolts and washers were provided by Viair, but I used nylok nuts in leu of the standard nuts and star washers provided. M5 sized hardware. Zorba's Jeep
Air Compressor Install
Viair 450C continuous duty air compressor with added outlet elbow.
Inlet needed an elbow as well.
Test fitting it onto the ABS tray.
Bolted to repainted ABS tray.
Ended up removing the compressor's head and cylinder to get it in position.
Note missing bolt in foreground left mount. See text.
Cylinder back in position.
Head reinstalled with outlet hose and elbow.
Partially populated manifold with local pressure gauge.
Overall view.
Grey disk looking thing at the top is the compressor's intake filter - placed high up.
Intake hose from filter fits on this barb fitting on the front of the compressor.
In hindsight, it may (or may not) be possible to install the compressor straight-on sideways instead of diagonally as I did it *IF* rotating the head 90° would allow doing so. The compressor head apparently can be installed in any orientation, something I didn't know when I started this project. *shrug*
Wiring is now connected and operational. The relays installed shortly after I purchased the Jeep, along with switches and control wiring done shortly thereafter now control the compressor. I had forgotten in the 2 year interval that the relay was wired as a low side control, so there was a bit of momentary confusion until I figured that out. The Compressor isn't too awfully loud from inside the cab until the engine is started. The increased voltage makes the compressor much louder and increases vibration. Hopefully, that will settle down when its pumping into the tank (its open right now).
Bracket being fabricated...
Several ¼" elbows used for compressed air. Drilled them out to 5/16;".
90° bends are restrictive, so why not open it up a bit?
I certainly don't need the 10K PSI rating of this part, it'll still be good for 150!
Bracket installed with air connector and associated plumbing bits.
If it weren't for a "BCH", nothing would fit on a Jeep!
Pneumatic tubing installed...
...and shaped with a heat gun. Hopefully it will stay that way!
Viair supplied pressure switch. Everything else in the system is plumbed
with ¼" fittings, yet this came with a ⅛" end. Needed a bushing to adapt.
Viair supplied manifold. The pressure switch was so damn BIG, that I had to extend
it out a bit so that it would clear the elbow for the local pressure gauge next to it.
Connecting the compressor and pressure switch to the pre-installed wiring.
Wiring loomed up.
Connections to pressure switch hidden under the cruise control servo.
Gauges installed. Getting the "blackout" style vacuum gauge was a bad idea, forced me to wire both gauge lites to switched +12, which results in an obnoxiously bright lite, esp. from the Viair pressure gauge. The Viair lighting is strictly "Old Skool" - an oversized socket assembly for a tiny bulb which I replaced with an LED. The "LED from the factory" vacuum gauge is tolerable at nite, but both really need to be dimmer. I'll either add a resistor or a voltage regulator behind the dash to dim them down a bit. Speculating that about 8 volts would be good...
Figuring out the in-cab pressure and vacuum gauges. Note the LED installed
in the pressure gauge's bulb socket. Vacuum gauge is LED from the factory.
Vacuum gauge was such a tight fit that I didn't need to use the bracket.
A tight squeeze to get all this stuff into the dual gauge housing.
Wiring up the illumination.
Done, except for the pressure line.
Bolted onto A-pillar trim piece.
Backside showing wiring, vacuum and pressure lines.
All the wiring from the radio bar that was hidden behind the A-pillar escutcheon.
Working the wiring, air, and pressure lines into the dash area.
Outside view - escutcheon back on.
Gauge housing as seen from the outside.
Inside, lites off.
Inside, lites on.
Inside, lites on at nite.
Ended up revising the vacuum line to the vacuum gauge with an ell.
Vacuum gauge operational.
This was a minor pain in the ass, I'm a big guy and there's just no room under the Jeep. Jacking it up as shown only helped slightly. I ended up having to get my wife to help, and I put temporary fasteners to hold the tank so I could get the jack that was holding the tank up out of the way. Then it was just a slow and tedious job to get everything in place and secured.
Far easier to deal with the stiff air line (to the gauge) under the dash with an Ell assembly...
...plus it will give me a quick disconnect if I need to pull the A-pillar assembly again.
Gauge plumbed into the under hood air manifold (2nd from right).
Current stack of parts. Tubing, tank, water separator, and heat exchanger for
finishing up the compressor project, plus H&R springs and Savvy cable shifter.
Holding Air Tank in place temporarily...
So I can mark the drill holes.
Water separator
Heat exchanger, hopefully most moisture will precipitate out...
... and get trapped by the separator.
Holes drilled and primed in the passenger side rear footwell.
Tank bolted in.
Bottom side view from Driver's side.
Bottom side view from Passenger's side.
Had to give the Jeep a lift to be able to get at everything.
I'm hoping that the heat exchanger and water separator combination will reduce the amount of moisture going into the tank. The air will still be pretty hot from the compressor by the time it gets to the exchanger, hopefully it'll cool enough to precipitate at least some of the water - time will tell. Note the cord actuated drain valve.
Air lines all run, the rear one went through the frame part way.
In cab air gauge.
Rear outlet, see text.
Pair of carriage bolts - see text.The rear air outlet was mounted on the bracket I added to the rear bumper build at the very last minute. It worked out OK, but if I had it to do over, I would have brought the bracket further back towards the bumper channel so I could strap the air line onto the frontside of the bracket between it and the Jeep's body for a cleaner install. Hindsight is always 20/20! But the good news was that I didn't have to even drill any holes in said bracket, the existing slots were perfect to hold the ¼" carriage bolts that I just happened to already have on hand. I generally don't like carriage bolts, but they worked well here.
On the first pressure test, the 150 PSI safety valve was releasing at about 144 whereas the pressure switch was turning off at about 148. This latter fact wasn't confirmed until the safety valve was replaced with a 175 PSI version which fixed the problem - a classic case of tolerance stackup.
In addition, the water separator leaked badly at the first test. Turns out that the bowl gasket was missing - I don't know if it was shipped to me that way or if I lost the thing. So the separator was removed for the time being. I'll try to find another one - I wasn't particularly impressed by the quality of this one anyway (all of $8.00). The inline heat exchanger remains in place.
Read on for the next part!
Safety relief valve trips before the pressure switch turns off...
Underhood pressure gauge at shutdown.
In-Cab pressure gauge at shutdown.
I'm not particularly happy with the drain valve cord -
too much of a chance of it getting hung up on something.
It works well though, just need to do something different.
Threw the battery charger on as I'd been running the OBA system without driving/running the Jeep.
Last touch, rubber leg tip from Ace hardware fits perfectly as a dust/dirt cap.
Chain lanyard prevents loss.
Frontside outlet gets one too!
The most important addition to date!
Its always in Home Depot's parking lot when I see another Jeep.
Guy on the Jeep forum makes these for $40/shipped...
Very good quality - well made!
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