Dryer Explosion

You're more than welcomed for whatever help..

"...If all wires from the individual components in the system run directly back to the controller..."

According to the wiring diagrams, that O/R wire does make a straight run to the trunk connector (with one big intermediate suspension-wire connector somewhere.. maybe on the firewall or in the dash.. somewhere at least partially accessible.
(I could search it out in the vacuum line/electrical connection manual.)

At the controller in the trunk the O/R wire is conveniently at the top outside corner of that large connector, so snipping it would be easy once it's exposed. Look and you'll see what I mean.
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If you want to try that, cut it at the wheel and the connector in the trunk and lay about 10 or 12 feet of wire across the roof of the car.
Leave a few inches of slack at both ends to splice in the new wire.

Instead of twisting copper strands, they also make these clips you squeeze with a pliers. They puncture the existing insulation and you can add a wire along side existing (Home Depot or maybe Radioshack)
But you still do want to cut the O/R at both ends to get it's length out of the circuit.

Replace the questionable solenoid..

Then just see if the system acts like it's supposed to.. or run the diagnostic tests.

..can't really drive around like that.. but it may prove the O/R was the problem.

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There's a chance the O/R is mistakenly touching something like a clock wire.. an alarm system wire.. or some circuit that is always alive when the battery is connected.
If so, a voltmeter across the solenoid connector may read 12V with the battery connected because the
O/R is then grounded, and yet it's not grounded without the battery.

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"...Yeah, I mean NO reading. No reaction by the meter whatsoever, so infinity I believe...."

Sounds like a problem with the meter, like it's not stable for some reason. An infinite reading often defaults to something like 3.000M ohms..
No reading in the screen makes me think batteries are low or there's some voltage running in the wire, there's a fried internal fuse, or similar..
 
Elessee said:
"...If all wires from the individual components in the system run directly back to the controller..."

According to the wiring diagrams, that O/R wire does make a straight run to the trunk connector (with one big intermediate suspension-wire connector somewhere.. maybe on the firewall or in the dash.. somewhere at least partially accessible.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I traced it up through the shock tower where it goes into a fatter part of the harness that goes trough the firewall. I think i may have seen it peeking out between the kick panel and the bottom of the dash.

Elessee said:
At the controller in the trunk the O/R wire is conveniently at the top outside corner of that large connector, so snipping it would be easy once it's exposed. Look and you'll see what I mean.
Click to expand...

Handy.
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Elessee said:
If you want to try that, cut it at the wheel and the connector in the trunk and lay about 10 or 12 feet of wire across the roof of the car.
Leave a few inches of slack at both ends to splice in the new wire.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what I was thinking.

By the way, considering that that black wire at the RF is always hot (12v) I was surprised there wasn't one runnung 12v at the other corner.
Are we absolutely sure that wire is supposed to be running 12v all the time?
Sorry, I don't have a schematic and I couldn't read it properly if i did. Does every corner get power independantly (parallel) or does it somehow work in series starting with that corner?
 
According the the wiring schematic, both front solenoids have a Black/Yellow hot wire that lead to the same fusible link, and from there change to one fat (10 Ga) Yellow wire, which connects to a bronze bolt on the starter solenoid.
It's the same bolt the Positive battery cable is attached to.

The Black/Y wire also T's off to the wiring harness, trails to the rear of the car, and so power is distributed to the two rear solenoids.

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With the car battery installed, set the meter to read Volts.
Stick the red probe on the LF wheel's Black/Y wire-terminal and clip the meter's black probe to the frame.
Should see 12V.
 
Confusing

Elessee said:
With the car battery installed, set the meter to read Volts.Stick the red probe on the LF wheel's Black/Y wire-terminal and clip the meter's black probe to the frame.
Should see 12V.
Click to expand...

Done this quite a few times already. All I get is a very low voltage reading (.01 volts) This is what is (has been confusing me). I went from side to side with the meter doing this test and this is what I kept getting. It seemed weird to me :confused:

I can try it again though.

By the way, I managed to find a controller locally so i will have another one to try if the need be.
 
"... I can try it again though...."
Try it after removing the Orange/Red wire from the circuit...

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Sometimes, there's a bit more to faulty circuits than meet the eye..

Since we suspect that one of your solenoid wires is short-circuited to something unknown (and faults are most apparent when the battery is connected) it'd be wise to suspect that your readings won't match voltage readings on a healthy car..
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Since the 4 solenoids are commonly connected together by 4 hot Black/Yellow wires, and considering that they are further connected through the 4 internal coil wires, and then through the 4 Orange/red, Blue, Green (or whatever colors) solenoid control wires, ALL of the wires are connected to the battery and all should show 12V-to-ground when the battery is installed.

Simply put, all the solenoid wires are connected together and connected to the battery so, normally, all wires are hot.
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Why might you not see 12Volts in all wires? Could it be because that Orange/Red wire is mistakenly grounded? Yes.

Think of a good garden hose. All water pressure is contained within the hose, and water shoots fast and hard out of it's one "hole" at the nozzle (12 volts).

Now, in the middle of the garden hose, puncture it with a big hole (this represents the faulty "ground"). Water pours out of the puncture freely.

Will water still "shoot" from the nozzle at the end? No. It'll be reduced to a trickle (i.e. 0.01 Volt)
Voltage is "pressure". You're losing pressure throughout the system, due to a "leak" somewhere in the wiring.
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Voltage and resistance can be tricky to measure in complicated devices, but on a car's wiring harness, things are pretty simple.
1)Wires should either be connected together or not connected.
2)Wires should either carry 12volts or no volts.
Knowing just those two things will help diagnose or even pinpoint most problems.
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btw, to ease your mind... I opened the hood on my car, found an exposed solenoid wire, stuck the tip of a knife blade into it, and hooked up a voltmeter, and it did show 12V to ground.

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one more thing.. I wouldn't swap controllers before being absolutely sure there is no wiring fault. You wouldn't want to chance instantly electrocuting it when it gets swapped.
 
Sorry about the 1 line post, wanted to take day off from this stuff.

OldSchool1 said:
So, have you replaced it?
Click to expand...

Yes.

After going through process of elimination (see thread), I was down to my final test.
The question was: is the orange/red trigger wire grounded to the frame somewhere?
The test: Patch in a length of wire bypassing the harness completely and check for voltage. So, I cut said wire at the controller and at the solenoid connector, patched in 16 feet of wire and tested for voltage across the solenoid connector terminals. Sure as sh*t, 12volts showing on the meter. This meant one thing, the source of the problem HAD to be the controller.

OldSchool1 said:
Where'd you get it from?
Click to expand...

The day before I drove an hour up the road where a guy was parting out a '91. Sad sight really...it was a black special edition, rotten and picked over by the vultures. Canadian winters are not kind to our vehicles. Grabbed the controller, some relays (air-ride & ABS);) , might as well since i'm there right?

So, I swapped out the boxes, checked for voltage again and voila...no more voltage:)

Ran the diagnostic...all components functioning as they should, most importantly my RF solenoid. click click, click click and so on.
I also had to replace this solenoid as it also was toast. Don't know if the computer fried the solenoid or vice versa. I'd be surprised if it was some sort of weird coincidence.

OldSchool1 said:
How are things now?
Click to expand...

So far so good, the front of the car is level again, my compressor is not timing out anymore (no more nagging orange light).
I do find that my LR is now sitting about 3/4" low now. I'm hoping that the computer needs some time to sort itself out so i'm just gonna drive it and keep my eye on it.

THANK YOU for all the help and the fast and detailed responses to my posts. Without you guys this car would have been in the boneyard a long time ago.
AIR-RIDE RULES! What other suspension sytem can you work on without even using a wrench?:D
 
"....Don't know if the computer fried the solenoid or vice versa. I'd be surprised if it was some sort of weird coincidence...."
[hmm.. bold, italics, underline etc is not available.. not even smilies..]

I think that controller croaked at a point where it was sending 12V to that RF solenoid. After maybe an hour or two the solenoid's coil finally overheated and it's insulation got too hot, and you got that short circuit discussed earlier.

Solenoids are rated at a certain percentage of time they can be active.. kinda like a service duty rating on an electric motor. The manufacturer expects ours to be ON for only a few seconds normally, and perhaps a few minutes maximum under abnormal conditions, and their expected use guides their construction as far as heat transfer, etc...

I agree about letting things settle in before making changes to the left side ride height.

Good to hear it's on the road again.
 
Found Some Pics

I know it's a bit after the fact, but I came across some pics today I took of the dessicant beads I baked to refill my dryer after it popped. I've seen a post or 2 on this topic and wanted to add my 2 cents. THIS is the way those things should look when they are properly dried.
I got lucky that day. I work in a university machine shop and the crew up in chem/phys sciences use this stuff all the time. Dude even baked 'em for me.

Friday morning 001.jpg
 
Cool and dry.

ridindirrty said:
I know it's a bit after the fact, but I came across some pics today I took of the dessicant beads I baked to refill my dryer after it popped. I've seen a post or 2 on this topic and wanted to add my 2 cents. THIS is the way those things should look when they are properly dried.
I got lucky that day. I work in a university machine shop and the crew up in chem/phys sciences use this stuff all the time. Dude even baked 'em for me.
Click to expand...
Nice picture! Do you think you could get enough for 75 or so of your closest Friends? :)

This is how a tray of twenty plus year old (stock) beads look after drying.

DSCF0521.sized.jpg
 
OldSchool1 said:
Nice picture! Do you think you could get enough for 75 or so of your closest Friends? :)
Click to expand...

You never know ;) Apparently they get the stuff for nuthin'! I still have 1/2 of that jar left. Still the same color. Sit them out and they go transparent in an hour. Nice way to dehumidify the apartment :D
Maybe I'll start a production run of throttle cable bushings too. Stainless maybe? Titanium?
 
ridindirrty said:
You never know ;) Apparently they get the stuff for nuthin'! I still have 1/2 of that jar left. Still the same color. Sit them out and they go transparent in an hour. Nice way to dehumidify the apartment :D
Maybe I'll start a production run of throttle cable bushings too. Stainless maybe? Titanium?
Click to expand...
HIJACK ALERT:
hehehe I snapped the picture and then closed the oven and then shut it off and went to bed. The next day, I have the driest oven in Philly (but also the wettest beads in Philly).

Normally, they go straight from the oven to the dryer case and are immediately reassembled. That night, I was beat and was NOT going to bed with an oven on :)
 
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