Over the past several weeks in preparation for a long drive out to the southwest for an extended backcountry camping trip and a visit to CM08, I have slowly assembled a now-working York OBA system and I thought I would write it up for the benefit of others contemplating this setup.
First I'll begin with the parts list and how I sourced them.
I was originally going to go with a lumpdog setup utilizing a longer belt capturing the York and the stock a/c compressor and the crankshaft. I didn't have a great feeling about since there a few questions left open when lumpdog started producing more of his bracket. I chose to go with his style setup, but I went locally to a good welding shop and worked together with a real talented fabricator named Jason with Grover Welding in Skokie, IL. We ended up finishing the bracket in about 3-4 hours, but two months to date I still haven't received a bill from the owner, Larry (great guy), although we talked about bartering some services from each other to cover the cost of fabbing the bracket. I would guess it costs close to $200 for the shop time. This was by far the most expensive part of the project, but well worth it in the end as I'm very happy with the bracket. I'll go into more detail about it later.
The York I sourced from a local pick and pull for $50 and it came out of a Ford Pickup from the mid-80s. It is the large 10 cfm compressor and the fittings on it in the pics below are what was on it when I pulled it. Everything worked on the compressor when I brought it home so all it needed was a good cleaning.
I looked to eBay for the air tank, pop-off valve, gauges, and pressure switch. I found a guy in Ohio that sells used air compressor parts and I ended up getting a 3 gallon Campbell Hausfeld air tank for $14. I got a regulator assembly with a 110 on / 135 off pressure switch, a 150psi pop-off valve and two gauges for $8.
A bunch of misc. fittings were purchased from Home Depot and Menard's. I used truck air brake tubing and push on fittings on the recommendation of my good buddy Ali (alia176). I bought a bunch of extra tubing in both 1/4" and 3/8" diameter along with a whole bag full of fittings for about $50. I sourced a check valve and mini coalescing filter from Grainger. The check valve was about $8 and the filter around $30-40.
I used some fuel injection hose for the compressor output and a some heater hose for the intake. I had these pieces of hose laying around the garage.
That's basically it for the parts. Now for the pics.
First pic is the bracket. It is very similar to most other York brackets. No modifications to the heater line were necessary, but the exhaust heat shield needed to be trimmed a little bit. The tensioner is the stock a/c tensioner removed from its original bracket. It is indexed with a small indent to keep the bolt in line while it is under tension. I carry the stock a/c belt with me and if some reason the York seizes, I can throw the stock tensioner and belt back on it about 15 minutes. For the intake, it is plumbed to the bottom center of the air filter cannister and I am using standard heater hose. For the output I am using fuel injection hose (lined) going to a check valve and then to the tank. From the tank it goes to the oil/water filter and then to the manifold. So far all the gunk is getting trapped in the tank and I haven't had any in the filter. The tank has a drain on the bottom that can be easily opened.
Next is the tank. It fit pretty nicely between the frame horns behind the ARB once I moved some of the winch cables around a bit. I used some scrap metal from around the house and a few small pieces of square tube to make a bracket to mount up the tank. It is held on by the four bolts on the underside of the frame rails underneath the factory tow hooks. It's not super pretty, but its sturdy and functional. Before I installed it I coated it in some spray on bedliner and black rattle can that I had laying around the house. You can barely see the input and output fittings if you look closely.
I decided to mount the manifold on the passenger side since all of the tubing and rest of the York junk was already there and it made the tubing runs shorter. I used the cruise control actuator cover as a mounting base for the electrical connections and relay, as well as the manifold itself. I think it's pretty slick as if I want to pull it, all I need to do is drain the system, pull off a few spade terminals, and pop the cover off to have the manifold in my hand. The power is taken from a fuse panel I have next to the front passenger seat. It's 10 guage wire to the fuse block, and the 15amp fuse is a 12volt receptacle in the cargo area and the 10amp is for the York. Inside the cab is a lighted toggle switch which runs in two positions: off and auto. In the auto mode, the light turns on whenever the clutch is engaged and the ignition is in the ON position.
The last line runs from the manifold to a quick disconnect I threaded into one of the uprights on the ARB so I can connect into the system. I anticipate running a lline to the rear in the future if I go with something other than the stock bumper. For now the 3 gal tank is sufficient for my needs, but I have the option of always tapping into my sliders for additional capacity. Hope this helps some of you mudders that are planning or currently building their OBA systems.
First I'll begin with the parts list and how I sourced them.
I was originally going to go with a lumpdog setup utilizing a longer belt capturing the York and the stock a/c compressor and the crankshaft. I didn't have a great feeling about since there a few questions left open when lumpdog started producing more of his bracket. I chose to go with his style setup, but I went locally to a good welding shop and worked together with a real talented fabricator named Jason with Grover Welding in Skokie, IL. We ended up finishing the bracket in about 3-4 hours, but two months to date I still haven't received a bill from the owner, Larry (great guy), although we talked about bartering some services from each other to cover the cost of fabbing the bracket. I would guess it costs close to $200 for the shop time. This was by far the most expensive part of the project, but well worth it in the end as I'm very happy with the bracket. I'll go into more detail about it later.
The York I sourced from a local pick and pull for $50 and it came out of a Ford Pickup from the mid-80s. It is the large 10 cfm compressor and the fittings on it in the pics below are what was on it when I pulled it. Everything worked on the compressor when I brought it home so all it needed was a good cleaning.
I looked to eBay for the air tank, pop-off valve, gauges, and pressure switch. I found a guy in Ohio that sells used air compressor parts and I ended up getting a 3 gallon Campbell Hausfeld air tank for $14. I got a regulator assembly with a 110 on / 135 off pressure switch, a 150psi pop-off valve and two gauges for $8.
A bunch of misc. fittings were purchased from Home Depot and Menard's. I used truck air brake tubing and push on fittings on the recommendation of my good buddy Ali (alia176). I bought a bunch of extra tubing in both 1/4" and 3/8" diameter along with a whole bag full of fittings for about $50. I sourced a check valve and mini coalescing filter from Grainger. The check valve was about $8 and the filter around $30-40.
I used some fuel injection hose for the compressor output and a some heater hose for the intake. I had these pieces of hose laying around the garage.
That's basically it for the parts. Now for the pics.
First pic is the bracket. It is very similar to most other York brackets. No modifications to the heater line were necessary, but the exhaust heat shield needed to be trimmed a little bit. The tensioner is the stock a/c tensioner removed from its original bracket. It is indexed with a small indent to keep the bolt in line while it is under tension. I carry the stock a/c belt with me and if some reason the York seizes, I can throw the stock tensioner and belt back on it about 15 minutes. For the intake, it is plumbed to the bottom center of the air filter cannister and I am using standard heater hose. For the output I am using fuel injection hose (lined) going to a check valve and then to the tank. From the tank it goes to the oil/water filter and then to the manifold. So far all the gunk is getting trapped in the tank and I haven't had any in the filter. The tank has a drain on the bottom that can be easily opened.
Next is the tank. It fit pretty nicely between the frame horns behind the ARB once I moved some of the winch cables around a bit. I used some scrap metal from around the house and a few small pieces of square tube to make a bracket to mount up the tank. It is held on by the four bolts on the underside of the frame rails underneath the factory tow hooks. It's not super pretty, but its sturdy and functional. Before I installed it I coated it in some spray on bedliner and black rattle can that I had laying around the house. You can barely see the input and output fittings if you look closely.
I decided to mount the manifold on the passenger side since all of the tubing and rest of the York junk was already there and it made the tubing runs shorter. I used the cruise control actuator cover as a mounting base for the electrical connections and relay, as well as the manifold itself. I think it's pretty slick as if I want to pull it, all I need to do is drain the system, pull off a few spade terminals, and pop the cover off to have the manifold in my hand. The power is taken from a fuse panel I have next to the front passenger seat. It's 10 guage wire to the fuse block, and the 15amp fuse is a 12volt receptacle in the cargo area and the 10amp is for the York. Inside the cab is a lighted toggle switch which runs in two positions: off and auto. In the auto mode, the light turns on whenever the clutch is engaged and the ignition is in the ON position.
The last line runs from the manifold to a quick disconnect I threaded into one of the uprights on the ARB so I can connect into the system. I anticipate running a lline to the rear in the future if I go with something other than the stock bumper. For now the 3 gal tank is sufficient for my needs, but I have the option of always tapping into my sliders for additional capacity. Hope this helps some of you mudders that are planning or currently building their OBA systems.
