Compressor

[cptjam]

Had a friend come over, complaining of a rough ride. Checked, no air in air bag. Filled it up, and it leaked out. Could not get the compressor to work. To check the bag, we used Les and Roger’s trick: run the air line from shrader valve to air bag. No parts to buy, just connect the lines from bag to valve. (Thanks Roger and Les) works great! The compressor is costly, bypassing it is free!
I remember them talking about that fix in Alaska 2015. First time we tried it, and it works!!

[safecracker]

Great job. I did the same thing.

[R FUN]

Glad it worked for you. When we got home from Alaska I did my friends RTL and his is working great also. Only have to air it up once a year and the bag holds good,
Have a good year.
Roger

[SpyderAnn01]

We did make a change in BUDS so the computer no longer thinks she has a compressor. If you bypass the compressor you may get errors if you don’t have that setting changed.

[Mikey]

When and if mine ever go's that is what's going to happen to mine! I don't find myself changing it once I got it set. And it's so easy to shoot some air in it if you want to carry a little extra.

[TheRev]

OK, so I am a genuine newbie and if you don't hear from me again, it's because I am lost in the electronic haze. You're discussing compressor and shrader valve. So where is this valve? 2012 RT s Also, I'm looking at YouTube videos about changing batteries on 2012 RT and they show the battery with the positive post down and the whole battery mounted in the left side of the compartment below the seat. Mine is mounted horizontally with negative on the right side (below the seat of course) and positive on the left side. The videos do not show how to change out the battery on my model. what am I missing? Many thanks.

[DGoebel]

Your RT s may not have the Compressor, it's up under the seat in the rear fender liner area, but they all have the Schrader air valve under the seat, look for the little chrome cap over by the brake fluid reservoir.
Schrader under seat.jpg
I have a 13 and don't have the 12 battery location so will have to let others help there.
On a '12 if it has a compressor, it has a switch just behind the steering, just right of center with a picture of a Shock and the words Hard on the top half and Soft on the bottom. It only adjusts while running with you sitting on the bike and it it is adjusting you should see a bar graph change on the dash when it's adjusting.
ACS Switch.jpg

[PW2013STL]

On the pre 13's below the battery is a solenoid that is connected to the + terminal from the battery. That is what I think you seen in the video.

[rickmiller48]

When our compressor went bad, I unpluged the dump valve and aired it manually until I replaced it with the aftermarket Viair compressor (got the info somewhere in these forums). The Viair compressor was about $80 on Summit and is a much more impressive piece than the stock one. You do have to do a little work to clock the compressor head 180 out and use longer mounting bolts. All that being said, if it happened again, I might just eliminate it like you guys did.

[Rookiespyder]

How hard is it to connect the shrader valve to the air bag. Is it easy to get to the lines do I have to remove any tupper ware. I can here my compressor kicking in all day long when I am riding especially when I am stopped at a red light very annoying. I have a 2015 RT Limited. Thanks.

[Grandpot]

I have replaced four compressors on RT's (one was mine, the others were customers). On all of them, I found the same problem. There is a set screw that holds the crank to the motor. That set screw fails. This allows the compressor motor to run without pumping air which in turn makes it run all the time. If you want a good fix, you need to upgrade to an aftermarket compressor. It's a very involved job and I put a video on YouTube showing how to do it and the parts needed. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NR_LY7u8eY

You can try to repair the OEM compressor, but it isn't worth it. It will most likely fail again.

[safecracker]

It is not that hard, if you do not mind taking the rear section off. Then you have better access. There is a total of 7 bolts to remove, this will allow you to remove rear storage area. You first need to remove seat and right and left side panels. I bought hose from BRP. I then ran the new hose from air bag to Shrader valve. i also removed compressor and bleed off valve. Unplugged the ACS switch. i removed the compressor relay also. Bruce