Air valve installation tutorial

[cbc76am]

Just for those that don't want to spend the money on an AirPro. Here's the cheap way to add air valves to your forks. Adding 6 to 10 psi is huge for bottoming and suspension balance on snowbikes. Way easier than changing oil volumes and I've never seen an issue with adding the additional pressure.

Remove the free piston from the forks, drill out the bleeder hole with the 7/64th bit to a depth just deeper than the threads of the valve.
Clean it with pressurized air, the be sure to use wd-40 to lube the aluminium so the steel tap doesn't make a mess. (USE IT! it's important) The tap is a 5/16-27 thread (special order - amazon)
you can then seat the Ford Mustang fuel injector schrader valve (google it and you;ll find them) in the hole. They are different than air ones for the fuel rail and are deeper, most pumps wont' work. I grind the tops off with a file to fix that.

if this seems over your head - probably should spend the money on the airpro, or there is a company making valves that thread into the regular bleeder thread size I've heard for 90 bucks.

 

[M5-]

That's awesome, what are those valves worth?

 

[dooman92]

Cbc76am, great job on tutorial. I did this very mod on my 18 500excf more than a year ago and worked great all last season. I got the idea from Catsledman1. There is very little room to tap on that shock/fork cap and I searched for a long time for the smallest Schrader valve available, sometimes called a tank valve. Fwiw, I found one the same size as mustang one put no need to grind down for air pumps. I got it from ADS Racing Shocks. Sku 312-hwsht-029. It is a 5/16 24 thread I believe. Another option was a 1/16th npt tank valve from eriksmilitarysurplus.com, #599756. 5/16 and 1/16 pipe are virtually same OD .312 and .313

M5, I think the two I purchased were around 20$ which included shipping.
I added a little fork oil and even 4-5lbs eliminated bottoming for me.
Yeah, careful drilling and taping cause not a lot of room to work with.

 

[cbc76am]

yup about 20 bucks, and you could go grab them from autozone. Good see see other options, the 5/16-27 is a very odd ball thread size and the filing is also a complication. So it appears doorman has some enhancements to this system already

ChrisNeibauer gave me this idea last year - even with 4 years of snowbikes under my belt, the OG guys have the tricks!

 

[needpowder]

yup about 20 bucks, and you could go grab them from autozone. Good see see other options, the 5/16-27 is a very odd ball thread size and the filing is also a complication. So it appears doorman has some enhancements to this system already

ChrisNeibauer gave me this idea last year - even with 4 years of snowbikes under my belt, the OG guys have the tricks!

Nice work CBC. The product for about 90 bucks is called Air ride. Screw right into the bleeder screw. Canadian guys so shipping to the states takes a moment. I switched to them from my air pro. For some reason my air pros would always leak over time and I got tired of dealing with it. They probably would’ve made it right if I had called them but I figured No hoses was just simpler. You basically just made an air ride for way cheaper!

 

[randall01]

Found this . Not sure if it would work . As I understand the air pro only adds air to one fork on a wp aer fork . Is this correct ?

 

[cbc76am]

On the aer you can't add air to the negative chamber so yes. Just add that to the right leg. Crank the air to 215psi on the air side leg and it should be good.

 

[hankohlson]

On the aer you can't add air to the negative chamber so yes. Just add that to the right leg. Crank the air to 215psi on the air side leg and it should be good.

I'm running the air pro on both sides. Give them a call and they can hook you up.

 

[randall01]

Anyone know the stock hole sizes and pitch ?

 

[M5-]

You could probably use a longer valve core rather than do the file down thing as an option. Think Im going to pick up a few sets of these pretty sure I have the tap already

 

[CATSLEDMAN1]

Another option for a schrader type fill valve with small dimensions is the fill valve used on Fox Float Shocks, at least the older Floats.

This is an aluminum short and squatty fill vale 5/16" 32 thread. Same threat as valve stem caps. I had the taps because of the repairs I have done to FOX FLOATS. Taps are common at my local tool store. The valves are pricey from FOX, but when the Floats were all the rage and broken floats where on my bench every Monday morning, I found the local bicycle shop with a ton of Mtn bike customers stock these, about $5 a piece if I recall. I pulled a used one out of an old broken float for pictures. In the bike caps I set them in with epoxy.

I agree on the comments that the quick coupling lines I used to build my first setup to fill the forks with air tend to leak down. Got to where I had to check every ride or carry a pump.

 

[CATSLEDMAN1]

AND even cheaper yet, I installed one schrader valve in my left fork, 18lbs, seems good and hasn't leaked yet.