Manually add air to suspension 1982 Aspencade

[StephLemay]

Hi folks.

Is there a way to manually add air to the suspension on my 82 Aspencade? The on-board pump isn't working and I will be looking into that but looking for a quick fix.

[Wilcoy02]

Should be a cap by the triple tree to add air. DO NOT use an air compressor. It will blow your seals out. Use a hand pump.

[StephLemay]

gotcha. I'll check that and report back. Thank you.

[StephLemay]

I couldn't find a cap anywhere but I did figure out that the compressor works fine and it's the switch that doesn't work. So I connected the compressor to a battery to make it pump up the shocks. Tomorrow, I will buy a momentary rocker switch and go from the battery to the compressor. That should solve my problem.

[StephLemay]

Update: I put in a switch inline with the battery, directly to the compressor. The compressor works but doesn't fill anything. Weird thing is it did do some filling last night, directly to the battery. Does anyone know if the front/back /increase/decrease buttons need power to control the valves? I assumed it was a mechanical thing and not an electrical thing. I thought I would be able to push the front or rear buttons while engaging the copressor and it would fill, but it's not. Any help would be appreciated.

[WingAdmin]

Update: I put in a switch inline with the battery, directly to the compressor. The compressor works but doesn't fill anything. Weird thing is it did do some filling last night, directly to the battery. Does anyone know if the front/back /increase/decrease buttons need power to control the valves? I assumed it was a mechanical thing and not an electrical thing. I thought I would be able to push the front or rear buttons while engaging the copressor and it would fill, but it's not. Any help would be appreciated.

That's how it's supposed to work, yes. The valves are actually just standard schraeder (tire) valves. It's possible they need the cores replaced.

1982 Aspencade compressor system chart

[StephLemay]

Ok, that image is quite helpful. So I'll check the main valve and see what's going on there. Thank you very much for that. The issue now is going to be how to get to those tire valves. You're probably right, the bike is 38 years old so the valves are probably sticking. Makes sense.

[Joneszy]

When I stripped my 83 aspencade I removed the compressor along with a whole lot of other stuff. While the valves may be standard schraeder tire valves the trouble I had was finding a fitting to adapt to the top of the front fork and to the rear suspension. I needed two adapters and found one as part of the compressor which I assumed to be an inlet to charge the air system in event of compressor failure and the other I eventually had to order from mother Honda. I simply looked up the part # on Partzilla for an 83 standard 51456-469-013 Not cheap but just under 18 bux. As you have already seen it takes very little air to inflate the suspension and a hand pump is highly recommended.