Replaced my globes today, here are a few tips (2 Viewers)

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Well I did my globes today and here are some tips I can share to give back to this great community. I have an '06 LX with 185,000 miles on it and the fluid was flushed about 30,000 miles ago. I used all of the tutorials you can find here, and here are a few things I will add. I went to Home Depot and for $11 got an 8 foot 2x6 cut into 4 pieces. I drove the truck up onto these boards, giving me more space to work underneath without having to mess with a jack and stands. Before lowering the truck from N to L, I went ahead and removed the two running board brackets that get in the way of accumulator removal. I also soaked all of the accumulators and bleed screws with PB blaster the night before. The bleed screws worked fine and I had no issues with them.

I could only get one of the four globes off with the BMW 36mm wrench I bought off Amazon (a popular one, just do a search for the link). The other three I ended up hitting with a hammer and chisel several times quite hard, then putting the wrench back on to break them free. I think the hammer/chisel helped to break the threads a bit, even though I never saw any movement with the globes. I put on all 4 of the new ones I got from IMPEX, then bled them along with the accumulator until new pink fluid came out. I didn't spill hardly any fluid and it wasn't messy for me at all. This is because 1) I got 3 feet of 3/16" ID clear vinyl tubing from ACE, the drilled a hole in the cap of a 2-liter sprite bottle to feed the hose into. It fit snugly over the bleeder screws and didn't drip anywhere. And 2) I saw lots of horror stories of fluid spraying everywhere when the globes were removed, so for each globe removal I cracked the corresponding bleeder screw back open while I spun off the globe, releasing any residual pressure as well any leftover fluid that might otherwise spray out when the globe is removed. This resulted in very little spillage of AHC fluid. I noticed no serious air intrusion into the globes or bleeder screws by using this method, as they bled very quickly and easily when I was all done.


Took me about 3 hours from start to finish. The globes I removed were all still ok, even though I was only getting 7 graduations from L to H. They all passed the pencil test. Pressures are all in spec, and I notice an improvement in ride, although it is still a bit harsh over sharp bumps at low speeds. I attribute that to my E-rated tires. The ride isn't a complete night and day difference like some have seen, but that is probably due to my old globes being pretty ok.

I hope this helps people in the future, as I was a little intimidated to tackled this job since I am not a mechanic by any means. In the end it wasn't too hard, it saved me a ton of money, and I know the suspension is in great shape for years to come. Well worth it!
 
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Well I did my globes today and here are some tips I can share to give back to this great community. I have an '06 LX with 185,000 miles on it and the fluid was flushed about 30,000 miles ago. I used all of the tutorials you can find here, and here are a few things I will add. I went to Home Depot and for $11 got an 8 foot 2x6 cut into 4 pieces. I drove the truck up onto these boards, giving me more space to work underneath without having to mess with a jack and stands. Before lowering the truck from N to L, I went ahead and removed the two running board brackets that get in the way of accumulator removal. I also soaked all of the accumulators and bleed screws with PB blaster the night before. The bleed screws worked fine and I had no issues with them.

I could only get one of the four globes off with the BMW 36mm wrench I bought off Amazon (a popular one, just do a search for the link). The other three I ended up hitting with a hammer and chisel several times quite hard, then putting the wrench back on to break them free. I think the hammer/chisel helped to break the threads a bit, even though I never saw any movement with the globes. I put on all 4 of the new ones I got from IMPEX, then bled them along with the accumulator until new pink fluid came out. I didn't spill hardly any fluid and it wasn't messy for me at all. This is because 1) I got 3 feet of 3/16" ID clear vinyl tubing from ACE, the drilled a hole in the cap of a 2-liter sprite bottle to feed the hose into. It fit snugly over the bleeder screws and didn't drip anywhere. And 2) I saw lots of horror stories of fluid spraying everywhere when the globes were removed, so for each globe removal I cracked the corresponding bleeder screw back open while I spun off the globe, releasing any residual pressure as well any leftover fluid that might otherwise spray out when the globe is removed. This resulted in very little spillage of AHC fluid. I noticed no serious air intrusion into the globes or bleeder screws by using this method, as they bled very quickly and easily when I was all done.


Took me about 3 hours from start to finish. The globes I removed were all still ok, even though I was only getting 7 graduations from L to H. They all passed the pencil test. Pressures are all in spec, and I notice an improvement in ride, although it is still a bit harsh over sharp bumps at low speeds. I attribute that to my E-rated tires. The ride isn't a complete night and day difference like some have seen, but that is probably due to my old globes being pretty ok.

I hope this helps people in the future, as I was a little intimidated to tackled this job since I am not a mechanic by any means. In the end it wasn't too hard, it saved me a ton of money, and I know the suspension is in great shape for years to come. Well worth it!

Great job, great report, great tips!! :steer:

Maybe a comment on the "pencil test" and 'globe condition' might be of assistance to others.

If the membrane can be moved with with a pencil (or similar), then most likely it is ruptured with nil or very little gas behind it.

There is no direct way to measure nitrogen gas pressure in a 'globe' but consider the following:

New 'globe' nitrogen pressure is specified as 384psi Front, 327 psi Rear, at the time the 'globe' is manufactured.

Assume 'globe' pressure drops to 150 pounds per square inch (which is still 3 to 4 times a usual tyre pressure on LC100/LX470).

It will take a very special pencil to make an impression against that pressure -- it is not going to happen, even when 'globe' is only at half-pressure!

As an indicator of overall condition of 'globes', it is better to rely on the difference in graduations at AHC Tank between "HI" height and "LO" height.

To be comparable with the FSM guidance, this test must be done at FSM-specified AHC pressures.

For example, if the test is done at very high AHC pressures, nitrogen pressure in 'globes' will struggle to push against the fluid pressure and less fluid will be sent to the AHC Tank and a misleading, smaller-than-correct number of graduations will be observed. Conversely, if AHC pressures are low, then a misleading, higher-than-correct number of graduations will be observed because 'globes' will push more fluid to the AHC Tank than would happen if AHC pressures are correct.

AHC pressures by themselves tell nothing about the condition of the 'globes'.

The purpose of the "HI/LO" test is to monitor the difference in graduations recorded over time, at constant FSM-specified AHC pressures.

The number of graduations in the "HI/LO" Test is expected to decrease slowly over time. This shows that the 'globes' are pushing less fluid back to the tank over time, as the 'globes' age, caused by nitrogen gas and gas pressure being lost slowly over time.

In that way, the reduced volume sent back to the tank (and the reduced graduations in the "HI/LO" Test) correlate with the declining nitrogen pressures in the 'globes' as time (years) goes by -- but the correlation is meaningless if the "HI/LO" Tests are not done at comparable FSM-specified pressures each time the test is done.

Pic below shows 'globe' removed at '8 graduations' done at correct AHC pressures - see 'button' on membrane just below fluid entry to 'globe', strongly resisted meaningless and irrelevant "Pencil Test"! 'Globes' may have lasted a little longer, but were changed prudently in advance of a very long overland trip -- 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles).

AHC Globe at 8 grads.jpg
 

Attachments

  • AHC HI-LO Test per FSM.pdf
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I'll add a few tips, for when replacing globes:
  1. Placing vehicle on jack-stand gives some welcome and needed extra room.
  2. HF has a forged wrench set, with a 36mm. These forged wrenches are very good at holding their shape. Old globes are on very tight. So this wrench's short handle needs some added leverage. I use the pipe from my very old jack-stands, as extender to the handle of the 36mm wrench. Which is where the extra room is welcome, giving pipe extender plenty of room to muscle off the globes.
  3. No need to pull off running board brackets. Just make sure the short globes are used in the fronts.
  4. Rub a little AHC fluid on O-ring seal of globe, to aid in assembly.
 
For your harsh ride, I encourage considering replacing the rubber bushings & cushions on the AHC hydraulic rams (shocks). I'm running BFG's on 16" rims. I got all my AHC pressures in line years ago, 2 years ago I replaced the globes. Substantial performance improvement but still harsh over every crack in road. It's easy to compare to my wife's completely babied & stock 2002 LX470, which still has an incredible ride quality.

I replaced the bushings & cushions on my front rams last week and the comfort improved dramatically, maybe more of a difference than new globes (mine were like yours, about 7 graduations and passed the pencil test, though I did go with Plaeides globes). I just got done with one rear ram, and will be doing the 2nd this week (all ram bushings & shocks were Lexus/Toyota OEM). I ordered Febest bushings for all 3 of the rear control arms (OEM demands total replacement of the arm, OEM bushings are not available). Doing one portion of the system at a time definitely helped me see the direct effect on ride quality.

For all 4 rams (shocks) below are the Lexus part numbers that fit my 2000 LX470. After I successfully replace the bushings on my rear control arms, I'll post the Febest part numbers. $182.73 all in shipped from Lexus Eskridge OKC.
2x: 9038519010
2x: 9090389016
2x: 9094801075
2x: 9094801076
2x: 9094801077
2x: 9094801078
 
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The globes I removed were all still ok, even though I was only getting 7 graduations from L to H
So why did you replace the globes?
 
After baselining the AHC & the rest of the truck: the ride was still harsh and the graduation test was at the point of a failing grade. I knew when I bought the truck it had been registered in Texas its whole life, but I bought it from 2 car guys I had never met in a 7-11 parking lot and they had bought it from auction. It was in incredible shape, but the maintenance history ended in ~2012. It was obvious basic maintenance had been kept up but just barely and seemed to have lived out side of a garage (a lot of leaves in the door seals).

After ~20 years of apparent moderate use and all the above points, it seemed reasonable to change the globes. Obviously the pencil test had to be done with the globes off & I didn't see a point in taking them off just to conduct a test that I didn't believe would give me results I should act on (IndroCruise has a very well thought argument above). Even after "passing" the pencil test, I had the new globes sitting there in my hands. While it's a minor risk, I'm not eager to create opportunities to introduce air into hydraulic systems and putting the old globes back on meant I would likely open the system yet again sooner than 20 years down the road to replace them.
 
For your harsh ride, I encourage considering replacing the rubber bushings & cushions on the AHC hydraulic rams (shocks). I'm running BFG's on 16" rims. I got all my AHC pressures in line years ago, 2 years ago I replaced the globes. Substantial performance improvement but still harsh over every crack in road. It's easy to compare to my wife's completely babied & stock 2002 LX470, which still has an incredible ride quality.

I replaced the bushings & cushions on my front rams last week and the comfort improved dramatically, maybe more of a difference than new globes (mine were like yours, about 7 graduations and passed the pencil test, though I did go with Plaeides globes). I just got done with one rear ram, and will be doing the 2nd this week (all ram bushings & shocks were Lexus/Toyota OEM). I ordered Febest bushings for all 3 of the rear control arms (OEM demands total replacement of the arm, OEM bushings are not available). Doing one portion of the system at a time definitely helped me see the direct effect on ride quality.

For all 4 rams (shocks) below are the Lexus part numbers that fit my 2000 LX470. After I successfully replace the bushings on my rear control arms, I'll post the Febest part numbers. $182.73 all in shipped from Lexus Eskridge OKC.
2x: 9038519010
2x: 9090389016
2x: 9094801075
2x: 9094801076
2x: 9094801077
2x: 9094801078
This is good information, thank you! I have looked into doing bushings, but I don't feel comfortable doing them myself and my mechanic wants a lot of money to swap them out. Also my ride quality might be better than I thought, because I have been conflating rattles with ride comfort...I'm about to start a new thread about it.
 
So why did you replace the globes?
I didn't know that they were all still somewhat ok until after I removed them. And they certainly weren't perfect, because I was only getting 7 graduations with my old ones and now I am getting almost 14 graduations. They were at the end of their life.
 
This is good information, thank you! I have looked into doing bushings, but I don't feel comfortable doing them myself and my mechanic wants a lot of money to swap them out. Also my ride quality might be better than I thought, because I have been conflating rattles with ride comfort...I'm about to start a new thread about it.
I respect being able to know your comfort level. You being confident to change the globes is what I based my recommendation on. For what it's worth, the fronts were infinitely easier than the rear (1st front took 1.5 hrs, 2nd took 45 minutes). Since I drove the truck for a day with just the fronts done and now have 1 rear replace, I feel confident saying the improvement of the ride was mostly changing the fronts, so you'll still get a lot of benefit from just doing the easier set.

The hard part for me as an amateur mechanic was pressing out the bushings, which if you sealed up the top of the shock and took it and the new bushing to a machine shop, they could press in & out for you. I used a ball press kit rented from Autozone.

I also could understand a level of uncomfortability in opening the system up and possibly getting dirt into the system. I certainly was concerned but tried to approach it like a spark plug change with cleaning up the area and vacuuming out dirt first, then using sandwich bags and rubber bands to seal off the hydraulic connections while exposed.
 
I respect being able to know your comfort level. You being confident to change the globes is what I based my recommendation on. For what it's worth, the fronts were infinitely easier than the rear (1st front took 1.5 hrs, 2nd took 45 minutes). Since I drove the truck for a day with just the fronts done and now have 1 rear replace, I feel confident saying the improvement of the ride was mostly changing the fronts, so you'll still get a lot of benefit from just doing the easier set.

The hard part for me as an amateur mechanic was pressing out the bushings, which if you sealed up the top of the shock and took it and the new bushing to a machine shop, they could press in & out for you. I used a ball press kit rented from Autozone.

I also could understand a level of uncomfortability in opening the system up and possibly getting dirt into the system. I certainly was concerned but tried to approach it like a spark plug change with cleaning up the area and vacuuming out dirt first, then using sandwich bags and rubber bands to seal off the hydraulic connections while exposed.
That's good to know. I might call the mechanic and ask how much they would charge to just press out the bushings and put in new ones in the front. I think I wanted more than that when I got my first quote. Thank you for those part numbers!
 
Cool, hope it works for you. One final tip, before I connected the rams back up to the hydraulic line, I pulled the ram to full extension. I then filled the ram with AHC fluid with a syringe and like 3 inches of clear tubing to get all the air out and give the bleeder valve the best opportunity to chase any air out after the change. Once I connected the ram, I went to the closest bleeder and bled the line as I lowered the wheel to the ground all the way to the bump stop to fully compress the ram.

It would be interesting to know volumes of the rams & the line volume from each ram to the respective bleeder but I got a lot of clear fluid back doing the above. I'm planning to do a full AHC flush once the final ram is re-rubbered.
 
Cool, hope it works for you. One final tip, before I connected the rams back up to the hydraulic line, I pulled the ram to full extension. I then filled the ram with AHC fluid with a syringe and like 3 inches of clear tubing to get all the air out and give the bleeder valve the best opportunity to chase any air out after the change. Once I connected the ram, I went to the closest bleeder and bled the line as I lowered the wheel to the ground all the way to the bump stop to fully compress the ram.

It would be interesting to know volumes of the rams & the line volume from each ram to the respective bleeder but I got a lot of clear fluid back doing the above. I'm planning to do a full AHC flush once the final ram is re-rubbered.
Great tip, thanks so much!
 
For your harsh ride, I encourage considering replacing the rubber bushings & cushions on the AHC hydraulic rams (shocks). I'm running BFG's on 16" rims. I got all my AHC pressures in line years ago, 2 years ago I replaced the globes. Substantial performance improvement but still harsh over every crack in road. It's easy to compare to my wife's completely babied & stock 2002 LX470, which still has an incredible ride quality.

I replaced the bushings & cushions on my front rams last week and the comfort improved dramatically, maybe more of a difference than new globes (mine were like yours, about 7 graduations and passed the pencil test, though I did go with Plaeides globes). I just got done with one rear ram, and will be doing the 2nd this week (all ram bushings & shocks were Lexus/Toyota OEM). I ordered Febest bushings for all 3 of the rear control arms (OEM demands total replacement of the arm, OEM bushings are not available). Doing one portion of the system at a time definitely helped me see the direct effect on ride quality.

For all 4 rams (shocks) below are the Lexus part numbers that fit my 2000 LX470. After I successfully replace the bushings on my rear control arms, I'll post the Febest part numbers. $182.73 all in shipped from Lexus Eskridge OKC.
2x: 9038519010
2x: 9090389016
2x: 9094801075
2x: 9094801076
2x: 9094801077
2x: 9094801078


Yes, please document or make note of the procedure to replace the shock/ram bushings and any difficulties involved. I would be very interested in doing this to mine. 👍
 
Cool, hope it works for you. One final tip, before I connected the rams back up to the hydraulic line, I pulled the ram to full extension. I then filled the ram with AHC fluid with a syringe and like 3 inches of clear tubing to get all the air out and give the bleeder valve the best opportunity to chase any air out after the change. Once I connected the ram, I went to the closest bleeder and bled the line as I lowered the wheel to the ground all the way to the bump stop to fully compress the ram.

It would be interesting to know volumes of the rams & the line volume from each ram to the respective bleeder but I got a lot of clear fluid back doing the above. I'm planning to do a full AHC flush once the final ram is re-rubbered.
+1 on what @flintknapper said. I'd be interested in more info on how you replaced your shocks.
 
I have considered replacing the bushings on the shocks, but I'm actually wondering about replacing the rear shock bodies because they both appear to have a bulged-out area (which they've had for years). I assume that this isn't common, because I haven't noticed anyone else ever mentioning it. (Front shock bodies appear fine, btw.)|

EDIT: Never mind, I found this thread: Bilstein Shock Compatability with AHC - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/bilstein-shock-compatability-with-ahc.1229819/#post-13444311

It's just the shield that rusted. All good.
 
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+1 on what @flintknapper said. I'd be interested in more info on how you replaced your shocks.


For some reason I thought this one of those *I wish I'd never done it* jobs, but maybe not.

Would love to hear how it is done...because I think I need to do it also.
 
For some reason I thought this one of those *I wish I'd never done it* jobs, but maybe not.

Would love to hear how it is done...because I think I need to do it also.
I thought the same thing. I wonder how much just changing just the lower bushing on the front/rear shocks would help (assuming they can be pressed out while still on the car).
 
We changed my friends globes all i have to say is wow. I wish i kept my AHC and changed the globes but too late now.
 
I thought the same thing. I wonder how much just changing just the lower bushing on the front/rear shocks would help (assuming they can be pressed out while still on the car).

IIRC its the top portion that is difficult. Reaching a nut/bolt or something?
 
IIRC its the top portion that is difficult. Reaching a nut/bolt or something?
I was thinking avoiding disconnecting the AHC lines/replacing the O rings hassle and just replacing the lower bushings. My ride is already good with 14 grads, pressure's in spec and C rated tires, but if a few bushings can improve it, I'm game. Now if replacing all bushings was as easy as replacing the rear springs, I'll be down for that.
 

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