I have a Bell B30E SN:9102 that has a shock on the front end that has leaked down and needs to be recharged. I am trying to find a non-oem tool to allow me to refill shock with nitrogen. The shop manual doesn't give a size of the valve connector required to attach to. Would anyone know what the size is for the connector to the shock fill valve?
I can’t say for sure on yours but I have heard that air conditioning fittings have worked to fill nitrogen shock systems. There are several different types of fittings and don’t know what one they used. Can you post a pic of the fitting?
If I recall it‘s standard Schrader type thread as used on a tire valve. The valve itself is opened and closed by turning a “nut“ down by the base.
How about posting a photo of the charging valve.?
This is the setup we use to recharge the nitrogen side of the track tensioner on our Euclid C6 (Terex 82-30). It is a Schrader female thread. We purchased the fitting at Cat (Finning), and had the hose made up.
That’s why I was asking for a photo. A ruler alongside the valve for scale would be even better. I am familiar with two different sizes of nitrogen charging valve. There is the large-bore size shown in the photos above posted by @BC Placer gold and also a smaller size. The two chucks to connect to them are shown below. The large size check is Cat Part Number 7S-5106 (left), the smaller one is 1S-8938 (right). The procedure as I know it is to install the chuck and tighten the swivel nut, then loosen the locknut (arrowed) located on the bottom of the Schrader valve stem, and finally depress the core of the valve using the T-handle on top of the chuck. Whether the valves used by Bell are of this type I have no idea. Question for @631G - has the suspension lost any oil.? Because if it has then simply gassing it up with nitrogen will not be sufficient. The damping effect requires oil and in absence of that the ride will become awfully bouncy plus the suspension will beat itself to death internally.
NIge, No we have not lost any oil from the strut. Though the strut is down it looks like it is in overall good shape. No obvious signs of damage or impacts from debris or rocks. I was able to run down a manual from a friend of mine that has access to the PDF versions of the shop manual from Bell. The attached images are what they show for filling and adjusting the struts during a 500hr PM. No sizes are provided. Just the kit number to order. I've tried to get up to the valve to measure but cannot quite get there without the tire removed because the strut has collapsed down to the point that the gap between the fender and top of tire is too close to fit in. If I can get a helper there with me then we might be able to tag team it with one coming from underneath and the other from the top side with eyes on the tape measure on the threads. I have found serval kits online that are very reasonable compared to Bell's pricing through the dealer for their kit. Also for what its worth I am being told that Bell in their training to the dealers has typically given the instruction that when a strut goes down that they should encourage the customer to replace, not rebuild, the cylinders. Apparently, the struts don't take well to a rebuild and often if they go down it happens quickly enough that an operator may not notice before damage is done to the strut barrel and internals that yield it unsuitable for rebuild. I guess I am about to find out. The price of a new strut from Bell is about $6,000 plus shipping from Texas. Rebuild components are $2,200 plus shop time and shipping from Texas. from Bell.
This is what we appear to have. Schrader valve with nut to seal it off after filling.
Just posted a couple pictures from the shop manual. No size provided though.
That looks like the small size of connector based on the fingers of the guy in the 2nd photo. The equivalent Cat connector would be 1S-8938. Aftermarket versions of that P/N are also available. I can’t understand why Bell would recommend replacement rather than rebuild for a collapsed strut. Do you have a parts breakdown of it.?
This is what I can see in the manual.
I don’t know about anyone else but I see nothing in there that we cause me to think twice about rebuilding that strut. It looks similar to what would be on a Cat ADT and they were perfectly rebuildable.
The piston wear bands are on page 112. . The “ neckbush “ (gland) seals are shown on page 114 . . I don’t find a part # for a strut seal kit , only can find #’s for the individual seals.
I would bet money that you have, even if it’s only a small amount. But then again there wasn’t much there in the first place. I dunno what @Diesel Dave thinks but if it was mine I would pull it apart, reseal it (let’s face it that’s how the nitrogen leaked out in the first place), add the correct amount of oil per the service manual, reinstall, and gas it up. If you’re going to do it then do it right.
Yup, I would reseal it.
Agree that we need to rebuild/reseal or replace. I didn't see any dust sticking to the cylinder to indicate a loss of oil, but it does makes sense that we had to lose something somewhere. And I agree totally with the fix it right and fix it once. I don't want to do this again now that we're finally coming out of this wet winter we have had here in GA where we can actually use the machine to make up lost schedule time. I was sent this company to call in Springfield MO that a local dealer uses for their trucks and has good results. https://yarbroughindustries.com/ I plan to call on them to see what they can do for us.
Yarborough is 50 minutes from me, they do any cylinder work for us, that we don't do ourselves. I've always been happy with the work they have done for us.
We plan to refill the strut today with nitrogen and see if it holds. if not she's coming off and headed out to Missouri for a rebuild.
Well good news, we refilled the strut and she has held up fine. Not sure why it leaked down to begin with. I suppose we just monitor it and see what happens. I bough this multi piece kit off Amazon and it worked out well for our mechanic. Hopefully it’ll come in handy later as well. Nitrogen Refill Kit
Goods news! glad to hear that nitrogen is holding
That's a reasonable cost for that refill kit. I have some accumulators that I have to recharge every so often and I have two different style adapters to do so. Accumulators are much like tires - they need a little bump every so often to maintain rated pressure. At least that has been my experience with these things over the years.
nige there's all so the European type size the volvo and like use eg Komatsu krupp
We use the exact same ones to service landing gear struts with nitrogen on Boeing 737-777. And hydraulic accumulators and emer door assist bottles.