Scuba Tech Tips: Clean Your Second Stage - S08E16

I divers like Pierce Alec Pierce goodbye tech tips talk to you again here from the aqua sub scuba diving center service area yeah so I some time ago we had we did a tech tip on what regulators I know it sounds funny because you regulars are smoking but what I mean by wet regulator is when you suck in on the regulator sometimes you get water how that make gobs of water like you're going to drown but you get water coming into your mouth and it can be very just upsetting it was just a little tiny spray you know it's imitating actually makes it choked a little bit budget and that's quite common if it's more than that or then it can be more than just irritating so if your regular there if your regulator is breathing wet it's fairly common now we did a do a tech tip on this a while ago Kevin tells me it was Series six number seven and it's called which is my regular breeze wet or what's what's up if my regulator breeze wet go look for that and we talked about why your regulator would raise breeze wet and and some of the solutions I thought about dick in a minute and share a couple more tips with you now this is called tech tips and these are tips these are things are not in the book you know every regulator has a manual that explains service manual explains exactly how to disassemble it and check everything clean everything put it back together replace irreplaceable parts and too long it's a service manual for for that regulator generally speaking they're just for service technicians although it's not hard to get them but these tips are not in there no no these tips are from 50 years of experience fixing regulators and finding things in aren't in the book and I get can't find it in the book so I got to figure it up myself and I remember that especially if it happens two or three times so this is this is an example what do you do if your reg is breathing wet how do you open up your second stage and check it and clean it and put it back together safely well a couple of things first of all let me share with you I this is not a secret other service people know about it as well but as I say it's not in the book so here's what you're gonna do if your regular is breathing wet and you can do this even if it isn't breathing wet this is a good idea take your regulator here's what you're going to take your regulator and put it on to your tank okay so right can you see that Kevin there I just mounted the regulator onto a tank now okay but make sure it's on there snugly and make sure the oil ring is good which it should be right so you get your regulator mounted onto a tank though now don't open the tank valve in fact make sure the hand was take me closed so what you have now is you have your first stage mounted onto a tank valve tank valve not open the old ring sealed so no air can get into the first stage right nowhere can get in there alright so now take your second stage and suck on the second stage put it in your mouth and suck on it now I don't just mean I mean surround just I don't know like a mid pretend you're drinking in McDonald's milkshake you know you got that straw and they put that out of them what put in there corn syrup and then milkshake it's so thick ok like that that's what you have to do is you go like this you put it in your bottom build up vacuum not pressure build up vacuum and now you could hear that can you hear that Kevin you can actually hear that see so airs leaking into the second stage it's not coming from the first station down the hose where's it coming from well they can only come from one or two places and some of this is explained on that prior tech tip series 6 number 7 it can only come from either a diaphragm that is leaking dried out and cracked or an exhaust valve most commonly it is also particularly an old regular like this you know like this he almost parks are made of rubber and they dry it out this regulator is 50 years old so it's probably dried out so that's what it would be so what do you do what do you do so you just okay my second stage is leaking what do you do well the only thing you can do is open up the second stage and take a look and clean it and put it back together and have necessary finally find the broken worn-out dried cracked diaphragm and or exhaust valve and replace them it's a very easy job you could take it to your service center and I certainly advocate that I think that's what you should do you got a trained professional he's got the right tools he's got the right parts he knows what he's doing you watch his alley pure screw Buster he knows all the tips anyway that's what you ought to do however maybe your service center doesn't service your particular brand maybe it's a long ways away maybe they charge a little too much money in your opinion and so on so what you do well here's the second stage and this is a pretty common second stage again it's not brand new by any stretch this regulator here is it's a good old conch-shell started making these in the late 60s and this is the most common regulator from US divers anyway a very very popular around the world for 25 years very very common but almost all second stages are similar similar okay so you get the second stage the first thing to do with my opinion is to take the second stage off the hose and in most cases that's a pretty straightforward operation a couple of regulators do have a special fitting right here where the hose joins the body but not to me a couple dear stupor brawl has a special tool that you need really take it off you have little ribs instead of a flat not like this you have little ribs and it's especially true for that you can get them there chief but Jerry speaking it's held on there by a fairly large nut right there get the proper size wrench that's the proper size wrench yes if it's a large nut like this you can use an adjustable wrench so get a proper size wrench for that nut that's the first nut that's a nut that's on the hose and you just take that not no don't do that because that nut is attached to threads that are attached to the plastic body if you just grab that and start to twist that there's any corrosion if it's jammed at all then it's going to twist in the plastic body and destroy the male threads of that and that goes on to crack the body and now you'd be going to your local dive store for sure did you have to buy a new body so don't just do that behind that first knot there should be another nut yes and that one is actually attached to the body so you need to hold that inner nut so it doesn't turn what this in particular regular if you take a closer if you can see that this outside nut is quite thick you see that given this nut here is quite thick but that inside nut is very good thin you do that on purpose if you try to put this wrench on this outside nut works perfectly if you try to put it on the inside not you can't if you do get in here you're certain you can't get it in there and get another mention on theirs in Turkey you can't do it you need to have a special scuba tool there you go and this is the scuba tool now you have to go your local dye store and get one of these and you're really sure do not expense it and what the scuba two of is quite frankly is a piece of a hardened steel quite thin thin it is yeah and and it has all of the most common nut sizes nut sizes thank you so okay so it has your half a 9/16 five-eighths eleven sixteenths three-quarter and so on all of the most common regulator nut sizes can be open with this little skipper to it so go and get one of these that's what I think you should do and then the very first thing you do when you get it is put your name permanent maggot marker on the back because sure enough your dive buddies you don't want to borrow it you know what I mean by borrow right okay now with this special scuba to it watch it slides right in it's nice and thin and it holds that not firmly in place so we don't destroy the body now we take this other wrench that fits onto the big nut just like see it's easy just really easy boy good thing we held that you see what I mean it can be really hard sometimes so we've broken it free now just unscrews that's right and the other reason I'm doing this quite frank did you hear that squeaky that's dry in there and that should be cleaning a lubricated so that's why I'm taking it up and now you can see that it's got a little bit of corrosion in there that should be cleaned off and the swivel itself it's not too bad but it should also be cleaned in warm water a little bit of soap dry add and then put a little bit of silicone grease down in there so that this swivel works perfectly but that's not really what we're here for for this chap we're here to clean the inside of this second stage so now you have to figure out how to get the second stage apart 90% of the rigs out there have a removable cover there's a couple out there that are weird really weird and you don't get the cover out you do something else and it falls apart in your hands if you have one of those take it to your local diester but 90% of the regs up there have a removable cover and there is some way to take that cover off so exposes a hole inside okay some regulators over the years had odd you methods you see this regulator here it's got these two teeth down at the bottom two pins sticking up and they're actually a part of a ring so you would take this and squeeze this together and that ring would then release the cover it would all fall apart some regulators have a little clip you have to take off some have a clamp with a screw take a look at your second stage and figure it out it's not complicated it really is not complicated figure it out if you can't figure it out sometimes on the internet you can figure it out or call your local dye start if you have a really good working relationship with your local dive store you can ask the guide the service guys how do I get that second stage job hopefully as I say if you have a good working relationship then then take a minute or so yeah but in most cases it's pretty self evident now this particular regulator very popular very common style you just don't screw it yeah this front cover just unscrews now to break it free you might need to use a special tool it's called a pair of needle nose pliers or whatever you may have in some cases there are the companies do have special tools for doing it it goes across the face it has two pins some are like a like a rubber disc that you put on that and you can turn it and turn a lot with this one the easiest way carefully cause it is plastic has to take this she just turns like that so just take this and turn it off and quite a few are made this way no you be careful because some regulators look just like this oh I just turn it off uh-huh be careful if it is really really tight stop because some hidden down on the bottom edge you'll find a little locking mechanism I'm thinking of oceanic I'm thinking of Tusa regulators they have a little locking tab and if you force it you're break the locking tab not a big deal the reg will still work but you don't want to do that so check and make sure that there isn't some kind of a locking tab Skiba Pro regulars have a little pin that goes in through a hole on the side hold Ziegler cutter on there pull the pin out unscrew it but most of our like there you'll figure it out take your time no I'm gonna get it open there's the cover yes a simple most regulars will also have a washer a thin plastic washer shut the friction washer which is a silly name because there's actually an anti friction washer the next item you see is made of rubber that's the actual diaphragm this is the Brendan sucks in and out when your breathed on it this is a made of rubber now if that is in place and you take the plastic cover and screw it down what'll happen is the plastic when a contact and rubber will grab the rubber and pushed it you don't want that so they have this head called empty friction washer goes in there first now you can screw the cover back down nice and snugly and when it hits the anti friction rubber it'll slide it won't grab the rubber so take the diaphragm and there's a hole regulator inside there's the mechanism the downstream second-stage valve you could call it don't disturb that you can see that's working pretty well and the other thing you want to notice in there is the exhaust remember we said and if you saw on that other series we saw there only two things that really that can unless you have a broken body not very often that causes a wet regular one the diaphragm will come back to that the other is exhaust though the u.s. exhaust valve was down in there you see this exhaust valve is still quite flexible and it is made of silicon it's not black neoprene rubber so once you dry out this is made of silicon and it seemed to be quite flexible and flops in and out there quite easily we'll find out just a minute so let's check the diaphragm how do you check the diaphragm well I see so you hold it up to a light stretch it out and you'll see a silicone you can actually see through this you can't see through it really but you can see the light now there's any cracks or tears in it you'll be able to tell clean it all off nice and clean take a toothbrush clean off the threads and hear really well a tiny tiny tiny bit of silicone grease and there isn't gonna hurt on the threads and then when you figured jeepers that looks pretty good to me put it back together like that friction washer anti friction washers right put that back in place then take your cover you've cleaned the threads on the cover of course as well and turn it back in and just screw it back now now if you've done a good job on this now if the first if the hose to the first stage is closed like this with your finger right and now if you suck on this nothing that read your sealed perfect put the holes back on let's go diving oh yeah there's a couple of ideas how to check if there's a leak by sucking on it how to open it up take your time be careful look carefully how to check the diaphragm look at the exhaust bail and put it all back together I hope that helps and hope and answer some of your questions how to take your pressure second stage quickly easily check for a waddle dee I put them all back together yeah simple are you take care I'll be back in a little while with some more tech tips for you hope that helps Alec Pierce scuba actives

Channel: Alec Peirce Scuba

Views: 16,026

Keywords: alec, peirce, scuba, tech, tips, tip, underwater, diving, vintage, sea, hunt, remembered, skin, dive, salt, water, fresh, local, shop, At, The, Ranch, service, professional, fun, shark, clean, second, 2nd, stage, regulator, remove, nut, diaghram, exhaust, mushroom, cover, tools, first, 1st, tank, port, purge, wet

Id: NfKn51NwBKU

Length: 13min 45sec (825 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 18 2018