Can the suspension compressor be lubricated? Mine seems to be getting a lot noisier lately.

 

It is probably about to fail. I don't think it can be lubed. Check with Eddie spinks at www. americanairsuspension.com. He sells remanufactured oem compressors, not the chinese varients. I suggest you change it before it fails. I had to drive with mine riding on the rubber stops. No fun!

 

Thanks! How difficult is it to replace the suspension compressor?

 

It is not bad. You have to remove the windshield washer reservoir. I removed the battery and its housing also just to have more room. Basically it is just removing bolts. The only tricky part is removing the air lines from the dryer. There are colored rings and you push them in while pulling on the air line. DO NOT CUT THE AIR LINES!! You will never get them back on without a leak. Here is the info on this from www.americanairsuspension.com:
"REMOVING THE AIR LINES FROM A DRYER OR SOLENOID

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The air lines are held in a dryer or solenoid by means of a little brass collet on each air line. This collet allows the air line to go in easily, but the 4 little jaws dig in making it difficult for the line to pull out.

HOW DO YOU REMOVE THE AIR LINES?

The way the factory designed the air lines to be released, is to push the little orange collar in towards the dryer with one hand, and pull the line out of the dryer/solenoid with the other hand.

NOTE:

While this was the way it was designed to work, in reality, if the air lines have been in the collet long enough, the 4 little jaws of the collet may have "dug in" and may require a little more effort to remove.

If you try the normal route to remove the lines and it gives you a hard time, try pushing the line in with one hand while pushing the orange collar in with the other hand. This will "usually" help release a stuck collet jaw." They have lots of other info so be sure to check them out.
If it was not so easy to replace the compressor I would do the conversion to regular springs and shocks. That way you never have any problems except that the chk suspension light stays on - a bit of black electric tape over it will help.
Good luck

 

I just had another thought on your problem. The noisiness may only be because the rubber isolator bushings are worn out. This is where most of the noise comes from. Mine started that way, but the whole compressor failed before I could change the bushings. You can get new isolator bushings from Ford or americanairsuspension. If that cures your problem, then you have saved about $150. If not, then you can replace the compressor and keep the new rubber isolators for spares. Also, Ford has a re-designed bracket that is supposed to be much quieter it is about $65 US. I don't know the part number but you can do a search on this forum and find it. You will still have to remove the compressor to install the new rubber.

 

I don't know. I would be willing to bet that the isolators were toast a long time ago. Usually if the pump gets louder & louder, its getting ready to die. (in other words, don't take any long trips with it )

I will offer the redesigned bracket a WHOLE LOT cheaper within a week or so.

BTW, these compressors are designed to run bone dry and cannot be lubricated.

Eddie Spinks
A.K.A. "BLUECOLLAR"
Air Suspension Parts & Conversion Kits
Office# 423-487-4321
www.americanairsuspension.com

 

Thanks for all the info! I'll start with the isolators and bracket and go from there.

 

My compressor was getting loud also. Follow the directions that EagleDakotagave. I just bought rebber grommet/washer (from lowes)and placed between the compressor and mounting hardeware on the truck. Much queiter now. I can barely hear the compressor running from outside the truck. Do a search, there are many threads on how to fix this problem. It is a pretty easy fix also. Good luck.