i posted the following question on the airstream forum site and cooperhawk was kind enough to tell me about this site so i hope i can get more info about it here. it is kind of confusing, but if anyone has some idea about what i am asking, i would appreciate any help. if further info is needed, please ask and i will try to answer.
i need information on a 1979 28' airstream excella motorhome. can someone tell me the proper procedure for adjusting the self-leveling valves on the rear airbag suspension system. the previous owner had both of the electrical solenoids bypassed in the system. are they needed? thanks!

airstreamers,
welcome to the site. A couple of members here have adjusted their leveling system. I think I have the manual on this as well. I'll post more later.

thanks, that information would be great!

The information that I have is on the newer (82) air ride system. We don't have any solenoids only one air valve that adjust the level. I can supply what  I have, but don't think it will help you.

I have seen the system you have on a 78 but only had a short time to look at it, but did not work on it.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

my husband said that he would appreciate whatever information you have as maybe it can help him figure it out. the previous owner bypassed the solenoids and used the valves so maybe any ideas would help. thank you so much. i see you are from tennessee. my husband was born in crab orchard (rocky top-crossville), he has family living in cookeville, where our daughter graduated from tennessee tech and our daughter is now married and lives in clinton. we had planned on moving back there when he retired, but that hasn't worked out yet. again thanks and blessings, cheryl.

I honestly don't know if the air bag "leveling" device ever worked; it sure never worked on our 83' 310. I've spent waaaaaay too much time & money trying to get it straight, including it being ripped out & replaced with a standard truck control. I'm still not pleased.

hi mike, can you tell me what you mean by replacing it with a standard truck control. i see that you said you still aren't pleased. we are just trying to figure out what we might try different. thanks, cheryl.

Hey Cheryl!

If you or Husband can get a photo of the valves and set up that in on your coach, that could help. If the valves are like the ones on ours, you could get new ones from American Carrier Equipment. They made the units on a lot of the AS's, but think that was after Thor bought AS.

If I could see what your valve looks like, it might be the same as we have on ours. We only have one valve that controls both air bags of the rear end air ride system.

Yes we love Tennessee, go VOL's and Titans!

We have been here in Middle TN for over 16 years. Moved from KC to work at the GM Saturn plant. Hope you can make it back to TN soon.

hi chris and brenda, thanks, will try to get some pics. beautiful rig you've got there!

The rear air bags on our 310 work well to keep the coch up off the so called leaf springs. I say so called, because the rear part of the leaves have been cut off, with what looks might have been with a gas cutter - very crude. When I first took delivery of the Airstream I did notice the horrible banging in the back but it was more noticable when it went for a MOT inspection.
 
I could see from a distance the "soft" bounce as the front was driven over the brake testing rollers, but when the rear went over the old girl shuddered. I then realised the air bags were down due to the fuse missing (courtessy previous owner(s)) to the compressor.

The frame work that holds the levers that control the level are very simple and work well............. but I would like to convert them to level adjustable similar to thos on the GMC - any ideas?

Talk about a grey area!!!! The older mo/hos had a pressure switch, much like you have if you're on a well...when the pressure
dropped, the on-board compressor cranked up & got the pressure back up. No one has ever explained to me how the "side to side"
leveling device worked. The "truck" system I have now is a regulator & two trailing arms adjusted at the shop for level. I wish I could
say it works fine, it does not; the "arms" are in rubber bushings & have a habit of slipping from their position, which means ( in my case)
one bag is flat, but the compressor does not "know". & does not fire. As soon as the weather clears, & I get the wine out of my modem, I'll (again) slide under & take a look. Purging the accumulator tank important as in any air system, another hassle for us that don't
carry creepers. Will let all know if I solve this...I hope you do too. Sorry for the multiple posts about the chat...dog got online.

Not a problem , I deleted the dup's

thanks so much for all the info. i have tried and tried to upload some pictures of this, but i keep getting a runtime server error. i'll try again later. technology, bah humbug!

balrgn, not to sound too dumb, but what are dup's?

Sometimes members accidently post the same reply twice.  Hence, "dupes".

Thanks, yes there were 3 duplicate posts

Here is a photo of our bag system. Also a shot of the air valve.

Also a shot of the cut off spring thats talked about. Some of the first units did not even have the springs. AS had a recall and replaced the solid bar with the springs.

thanks so much for all the effort i know you must have put into getting these pictures. i am still trying to upload pictures of ours, but i keep getting a server error message. my husband said he will compare these to what ours looks like and try to piece the puzzle together. we really appreciate your help and kindness and will post again when we get further info. blessings, cheryl.

Cheryl,
PM me with any issues you have uploading images. There is a step by step tutorial online (click here).

makes me wonder about the springs. looks like they were cut while banded together ,with that much heat it takes the temper out of the spring so that end of the spring has no temper or spring rating in it.