# how do you hook up manual paddle valves?



## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

I got a Airlift 4 paddle valve unit for free. I want to use it but I'm confused how to hook it up. I can't find any diagrams, manuals, instructions at all. Also have 2 dual needle gauges I want to use. 

I see the valves have two barbs each, I'm guessing the bottom barb runs a line to the tank, and the top barb runs to the bag, with a T-fitting between the valve and bag for the gauge? But again, I'm not sure.

Any input is great.


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

I send somebody a diagram and writeup about a month ago, i will go dig it up


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

Hey bud, just getting back to you now. See the picture below and here is sort of a legend a description of what everything is:

red lines - 1/4" air line
Pink lines - signal circuit for relay
Grey lines - power circuit for relay
Blue lines - for your gauges


Let's start at the very beginning, your compressor. Your compressor will fill your air tank to a certain pressure. The compressor has an air filter on the inlet so that dust/dirt does not get inside, which makes sense. On the outlet of the compressor it should come with some sort of steel braided hose/check valve assembly. The check valve makes sure that once you fill the tank none of the air leaks out. If you did not have the check valve then the air would leak backwards through the compressor and wreck the piston rings and internal check valves of the compressor. It should be 1/4" and the port on the tank is 1/2" so by using a brass reducer bushing you should be able to connect the male threaded 1/4" steel braided hose to the 1/2" female threaded 1/2" tank port. It does not matter which port you choose, as long as it is not the bottom port.

Now that your compressor is plumbed into the tank we should worry about the tank. The tank MUST have some things on it to make it work and some recommended items for easy maintenance. MUST have a pressure switch. Pressure switches are usually 1/8" or 1/4" so using a brass reducer bushing like before, we need to screw the pressure gauge into the tank. 
It is recommended to have a drain valve on the bottom of the tank, so when moisture builds up you can drain it out the bottom without having to take the tank out of the trunk and turn it upside down. We usually use a drain ****: http://bagriders.com/modlab/products/DRAIN-****.html
It is also recommended to run a pressure safety valve just incase your pressure switch stops working. This essentially releases pressure above the setpoint. For instance if your pressure switch fails and your compressor keeps running past 150psi then it could keep going up and up and up and damage lines/equipment. If you get a 175psi safety valve, when the pressure reaches 176psi, it will open and let 1psi of air out, back down to 175psi. Your compressor will keep pumping but it will never reach above 175psi in the tank which is good for safety reasons. Plus it is cheap so if you have enough ports on your tank i would get one sometime in the near future, doesn't have to be right away but it is a good idea: http://bagriders.com/modlab/products/SAFETY-VALVE.html
Other useful piece of valving is a schrader valve. This is a valve with a built in check valve. You can leave it completely unplugged and no air will escape, and then you can attach another air hose/air compressor to it. This can be used to run air tools off of, and can also be used to fill your tank from another compressor if yours dies for some reason: http://bagriders.com/modlab/products...L-COUPLER.html
With the valve above, the other option would be to get an inflation valve. It is essentially a valvestem that goes on your tank so that you can use a tire chuck at any gas station to refill your tank if your compressor dies. Some people like 1 better than the other but it is completely up to you. Again it depends on how many ports your tank has etc. If it was me, i would skip the schrader valve and just get the inflation valve if you are short on tank ports.
The other 2 ports on the tank you will need for your air lines. It looks like you have 2 of them already there, they are the two brass reducer bushings as well as the two silver elbow fittings. Thread the elbows into the reducer bushings, and the bushings into the tank. Then you can literally push the 1/4" air line into the fittings. Make sure that when you push it in, it "clicks" or feels like it is on all the way TWICE. The first time it clicks is to get the hose past the grabbing teeth that hold the line in place. The second click is more important, it is when the tube seals against the o-ring in the bottom of the fitting. If you only click it once, it will hold but will leak like crazy.

Now run 2 x 1/4" air lines to the front of the car where your paddle valves will be located, and then using the included "Y" fitting on the paddle valves, hook up 1 line to the first two valves and 1 line to the last two valves. Therefore, a single 1/4" line ran from the back is feeding 2 valves, and the other 1/4" line is feeding the other 2 valves. At this point it doesn't matter which one you connect to which one at all. What does matter however is the up/down direction of the paddles, so make sure that they are in the correct orientation.

Now on the discharge line of each paddle valve you will notice a "T" fitting. This fitting is for running your pressure gauges. So what you want to do is use 1 gauge for your front pressures, and the other gauge for your rear pressures. So figure out which valve you want for which corner of the car. Make sure to hook the fronts up to 1 gauge, and the rears to the other, but also make sure to hook up the right sides of the gauges to the right sides of the car and the left side of the gauges to the left side of the car. Since they are dual needle gauges, you want the reds to be for one side of the car and the blacks to be for the other side, it would be confusing if say the red front was right and the red rear was left.

On the through port on the "t" fitting mentioned above, just run the line however you feel is the best way to each corner of the car. Try to keep the length of the line the same for left/right. Doesn't matter for front/back but it definitely matters for left/right.

And just a note on the relay, the way i have it draw, the 30 pin is on the top, 87 on the bottom, and 85/86 on the right left, doesnt matter which is which for those.












Sean

PS no making fun of my fabulous Paint skills


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## froggyfly (Sep 10, 2012)

http://www.catalograck.com/imgVD/AIL/ES_MN-726_27665_27666.pdf


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

Awesome thanks to both responses. :beer:


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

froggyfly said:


> http://www.catalograck.com/imgVD/AIL/ES_MN-726_27665_27666.pdf


Probably would have been a better picture to use :laugh:

Instead of just telling people how to hook it up, i like to also provide reasons for doing everything as well as recommendations for altering your setup for more functionality so that they can choose if they want certain functions :thumbup:


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

MechEngg said:


> Probably would have been a better picture to use :laugh:
> 
> Instead of just telling people how to hook it up, i like to also provide reasons for doing everything as well as recommendations for altering your setup for more functionality so that they can choose if they want certain functions :thumbup:


Thanks, ya I have the safety valve, air tool hose and attachments, water drain, shrader valve, clear water traps.


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

Read up a bit on the clear parker water traps, seems that lots of people are moving away from them because they are difficult to open. I haven't heard of anybody having problems with the SMC ones, i am running 3 of them and no leaks at all :thumbup:


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

Ya that's why I bought em. The person I got one off of said they.were a pain to open, but I haven't had a problem with them.


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## jonpwn (Aug 13, 2010)

http://bagriders.com/modlab/tech/plumbing diagrams/BR_MANUAL_SETUP.pdf

http://bagriders.com/modlab/tech/install_manuals/bag_riders/BR_manual_kit_install.pdf


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

Sweet. Only other question I have is the type of fuse used between the relay and battery. What is recommended? A inline "add a fuse", but what amps, 10A? I'm running a single comp to start, but once I get the custom rand and hardlines I'll be adding another comp.


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

kevin FaKiN spLits said:


> Sweet. Only other question I have is the type of fuse used between the relay and battery. What is recommended? A inline "add a fuse", but what amps, 12A same as 12v outlet? I'm running a single comp to start, but once I get the custom rand and hardlines I'll be adding another comp.


Between the relay and battery you should use an inline fuse. 40A should do in the beginning but use an 80A for dual compressors.


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

MechEngg said:


> Between the relay and battery you should use an inline fuse. 40A should do in the beginning but use an 80A for dual compressors.


Recommendations of where to get it?


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

Actually I have a 8 guage inline ANL kit from my old car. I'll get a 40a fuse for it. So that goes from the battery to the #30 on the relay? If so I'm good to go boxes started arriving today


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

kevin FaKiN spLits said:


> Actually I have a 8 guage inline ANL kit from my old car. I'll get a 40a fuse for it. So that goes from the battery to the #30 on the relay? If so I'm good to go boxes started arriving today


Yup an 8ga in line fuse will work. And yes that wire goes from the battery to the 30 pin on the relay

Good luck, if you have urgent questions PM me, i usually reply pretty quickly :thumbup:


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

MechEngg said:


> Yup an 8ga in line fuse will work. And yes that wire goes from the battery to the 30 pin on the relay
> 
> Good luck, if you have urgent questions PM me, i usually reply pretty quickly :thumbup:


Sweet! Thanks for the answers man :thumbup:


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## jonpwn (Aug 13, 2010)

MechEngg said:


> Between the relay and battery you should use an inline fuse. 40A should do in the beginning but use an 80A for dual compressors.


ORT supplied me with a 60A fuse for the inline, and two 30A fuses to go in my distribution block (runnign two 400c's)


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

jonpwn said:


> ORT supplied me with a 60A fuse for the inline, and two 30A fuses to go in my distribution block (runnign two 400c's)


Honestly i disagree with this, they should have provided an 80A and two 40A's. 

Reasoning, i have wrote this out many many times before and of course i can never find it to copy/paste it:
The 400c compressors are rated at 26A draw @ 13.8V. Power draw is constant for motors, and of course as always is the product of voltage and amperage. So the total power draw from your compressor motor is 358.8W. Now with your 30A fuse (assuming that your fuse is 30A and no factory deviance which can be as high as +-5%) your battery can drop down to 11.96V before your fuse blows. Battery drops can be that significant easily if you are running your headlights and AC and your compressor kicks in. The voltage drop is even greater when both compressors kick in at once because it takes a few seconds before your voltage regulator actually kicks into high output. So those few seconds is very easy to blow your fuse(s). Your fuse can also blow quite easily just from the service factor that they can run up to. A 15% rating is usually given to any commercial motor for the spike in power during the initial startup/when the motor kicks on. This means that for a short period of time the motor draws up to 15% more than the rated power, which in this case of a perfectly healthy battery running at exactly 13.8V it will draw 29.9A. Again very close to your fuse rating and can blow/trip with any deviance from the 30A rating.

so long story short you should be using a 40A fuse for each compressor and/or an 80A inline fuse if you don't have a distribution block in the back. 

If you have any reasoning why you should be using a 30A please share


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

And keyed power source off the pressure switch can go to the 12v outlet?


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

kevin FaKiN spLits said:


> And keyed power source off the pressure switch can go to the 12v outlet?


One side of the pressure switch is grounded, the other side goes to the 86 pin on the relay. The 85 pin on the relay is connected to a switched 12V power source such as the 75X under the dash or any of the switched fuses in your fuse box. I just find the 75X terminal easier, it is found above the dead pedal on a mk4


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

Ah I was looking at the first bagriders install directions, and they show one prong of the pressure switch goes to the relay and the other goes to a keyed source. They show the #85 pin grounded.


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

kevin FaKiN spLits said:


> Ah I was looking at the first bagriders install directions, and they show one prong of the pressure switch goes to the relay and the other goes to a keyed source. They show the #85 pin grounded.


It is the exact same thing. That one line starts at a keyed power source, goes through the pressure switch at some point and goes through the 85/86 pins at some point. It does not matter where the items are located along the line. So yes, both are correct


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

So on the keyed switch line what would i tap into on a mkv? I dont really want to mess with the ignition.. 12v socket?


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## Lawn_Mower (Jul 15, 2008)

kevin FaKiN spLits said:


> So on the keyed switch line what would i tap into on a mkv? I dont really want to mess with the ignition.. 12v socket?


I tapped off the 12v socket in the trunk. :beer:


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

Lawn_Mower said:


> I tapped off the 12v socket in the trunk. :beer:


Cool, then you just have a power line to the battery for main power and that's it for powering? Ive got all the ground wires ran already. Any issues with the socket fuses blowing?


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## Lawn_Mower (Jul 15, 2008)

kevin FaKiN spLits said:


> Cool, then you just have a power line to the battery for main power and that's it for powering? Ive got all the ground wires ran already. Any issues with the socket fuses blowing?


Yeah got the cable to the battery, no issues with the fuse blowing since it is just switched power for the relay, so there isn't much draw on it at all.


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## kevin splits (Aug 23, 2010)

Lawn_Mower said:


> Yeah got the cable to the battery, no issues with the fuse blowing since it is just switched power for the relay, so there isn't much draw on it at all.


Cool saves me removing the interior again!


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