Retro Valve venting out back

[robertreed711]

This valve has been working fine for the longest time and just started doing this. It vents at what seems like full pressure out the rear as soon as I turn the air on but if I pull the trigger it stops and works fine until I turn the air off and back on again. I assume that means something isn't quite seating correctly but not sure how to remedy it. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[BTAutoMag]

take the back of the valve apart and check the orings and everything for wear, if not you could have a reg thats going

[robertreed711]

I did that once and looked everything over and wiped it down and put it back together. It seemed to fix it temporarily but then it started doing it again. Any idea what o-ring I should specifically target?

[OPBN]

There is a clear diaphragm inside the reg piston. Try opening it up and flipping it.

[Tunaman]

Replace the regulator piston. Email me if you need one.

[robertreed711]

Replace the regulator piston. Email me if you need one.

Will do. Is it worth trying to open up the old one first?

[Justus]

Honestly, no, not for the price of a new one compared to the headaches involved in trying to fix one that has effectively expired.

[OPBN]

Honestly, no, not for the price of a new one compared to the headaches involved in trying to fix one that has effectively expired.

Gonna have to disagree. Takes 5 mins to disassemble the reg and pop the piston housing apart and flip the diaphragm vs $30 for a new assembly. If you somehow screw it up you can just buy a new one.

[Tunaman]

Gonna have to disagree. Takes 5 mins to disassemble the reg and pop the piston housing apart and flip the diaphragm vs $30 for a new assembly. If you somehow screw it up you can just buy a new one.

Flipping the diaphram will effectively do NOTHING to fix the problem. The problem lies with spring fatigue...not the diaphram. This is also a safety device so messing with it causes liability issues on your part.

[OPBN]

Flipping the diaphram will effectively do NOTHING to fix the problem. The problem lies with spring fatigue...not the diaphram. This is also a safety device so messing with it causes liability issues on your part.

Ok. It was recommended for me to try this a couple of years back on an X of mine that was leaking like this. Mine was a fairly minor leak though and it fixed it. I don't get the safety issue thing. As long as you put it back together EXACTLY like it came apart, including counting the number of turns on the inner nut, what does it hurt?

[Tunaman]

Ok. It was recommended for me to try this a couple of years back on an X of mine that was leaking like this. Mine was a fairly minor leak though and it fixed it. I don't get the safety issue thing. As long as you put it back together EXACTLY like it came apart, including counting the number of turns on the inner nut, what does it hurt?

Unless you have the proper jig and gauge setup for properly adjusting the reg blow off setting you are wasting your time. If you screw it up you risk having it blow up in your face.

[blackdeath1k]

Tuna? An honest question here. With a more personal answer than businessman outlook preferred. Not trying to be a jerk. It really is an honest curiosity of mine. Especially since I think the one in my automagRT is finally going bad after all these years.

What could blow up without a hand full of failures? The reg is rated at 3k. And pretty sure full pressure would trash paint. From a businessman standpoint I agree with you. But I was on the understanding that reg piston blow off is a fail safe for fps. And not much more than that. So basically it could be shimmed down and made where it wouldn't leak at all. Ever. And really the only risk would be if there were other failures that cause shooting hot. And explosion would take basically everything failing. And then if the reg is rated at 3k. I'm betting it would withstand 45 if somehow you really had that many things go wrong at once.

[Spider-TW]

I go through both ends of this argument in my head whenever it comes up.

If you don't understand exactly what the relief is doing, just get the new one.

The mechanical term for the metal condition is "creep", and is the same problem you find in long term loaded firearm magazines. "Fatigue" is associated with cycling, which doesn't happen in this case and can get a lot more complicated when you look it up.

Besides counting turns, I would make an alignment mark on the nut and piston, since a quarter of a turn is significant. They are mechanical after all, and that exact position should be good for the original set pressure or less.

While the reg is rated for 3k, body washers have been known to come loose (especially when you leave the bolt spring out). The reg itself has a high probability of seal failure, meaning when something gives, it will probably be there. When the reg seal gives up, you don't want the bolt to beat everything else up. The relief helps that. However, the relief doesn't normally flow. Once it does, it has the chance to take in dirt and oil where it was a clean seal before. A leaky piston relief may just need cleaning, but flipping the seal may help even out the aging.

Another problem is when you sell a valve. Since mags last through several owners, you can more easily end up with a chain of failures. Case in point is the center feed mag without the twistlock pin. If that mag was using a friction fit barrel and had the reg fail with no relief, we are looking at an older body washer that had plenty of opportunity for abuse. I expect that the bolt, washer and barrel would stop about halfway down the minimag body and continue to vent the bottle. Nothing terribly tragic in that, but the mag gets jacked up.

Anyway, if you mess with one, be willing to bet your best mag on the results, i.e. take it seriously. You need gauges once you get away from the factory setting.

[robertreed711]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I just wanted to say one other thing about how this valve is behaving and see if you all still this it's the regulator piston that needs replacing.

The venting only happens if it's the first time I put air through the marker after it's been sitting. If I pull the trigger it stops and then the valve functions perfectly. I can then de-gas the system and air it back up and it does not vent out the rear. I tried this probably 10 times tonight and it worked fine.

Again, I just wanted to make sure I was clear in the representation of this issue before I ordered a regulator piston from Tuna.

Thanks.

[athomas]

If the valve has never had the piston assembly replaced, it may need to be done anyway. The newer piston assemblies have a higher pressure release than earlier versions, so they work better with level 10 bolts.