regulatorbj wrote:Will try your posted email
john68
Thanks for the info again John.
It came in real handy for the rebuild. It was fairly straight forward and in most aspects it is 90% like a US Divers "Mistral". Things that ARE different are the actuator pin for the first stage. It is larger and beefier and has the pin retaining seal placed in a groove around it rather than inside the main reg body as per a Spirotechnique or US D Mistral body ( I was just able to squeeze a AS568-003 o-ring onto it and with a little silicon grease thump it gently into the body using a plastic hammer) . The yoke is fricken massive and could easily take 3500 psi. The serial number of the reg is on the yoke.
Inside the built in SPG port is a finely turned brass shut off screw that only should be removed IF you plan to actually use an SPG hook up with the reg. Due to the SPG port's placement on the reg body, you will either have to use a pillar tank valve of look for a K valve that will allow the reg to fully seat onto the tank orifice, or it will bump up againts a modern Sherwood valve.
The main HP seat is approximately 3/8ths of an inch longer and has a longer and larger diameter spring, approximately 1 millimeter larger in diameter than a USD spring from Bryan and has thinner walls due to spring size being larger in diameter. A US Divers Mistral seat could be used, but you will need to bore it out to allow the larger and longer spring to work efficiently, making sure you get your spring height to seat body length correct first as per original combined seat and spring length. Exterior seat side and facing dimensions are compatible with a US D Mistral seat. The machined horns have 1mm thick by 21mm interior by 24mm exterior flat seals, but you can use a lightly greased AS568-211 o-ring as a truly viable replacement and allow for ease of adjustment of the horns.
I have used a new silicon main diaphragm as opposed to the original (which was in great shape). The issue here is getting the can clamps to seal the cans up due to the orignal diaphragm's thicker dimensions.This was solved by adding heavy gage military rolled aluminium foil to the curlled lip of the exhaust can just underneath the can clamp to bolster the loss of material and seat the can clamps so no movement would take place. All that said, a new SS retaining band would work just fine.
Lever height is adjusted from the lever support body (Lever frame) to 1/2inch and works great with either the original diaphragm or a new silicon one. The lever adjustment wheel is secured to the body in the same way as a US D, but it has a flat tip slot for a screwdriver rather than a hex head. I didn't look to see if a US D hex post and screw would work as the original was in excellent shape and showed NO apparent wear. The seating nut and adjustment post were both in almost like new condition. I doubt that this reg ever saw salt water, or was in fact religiously maintained if it indeed did see salt water. Chromework on this reg was on an order of magnitude higher than any reg I have rebuilt. Just outstanding!
With regards to the mouthpiece, I have cleaned it and have replaced the mushroom valves with new ala VDH as well as installed Bryans new 1in. by 1 and 3/4 EPDM hoses. With the so called reverse mouthpiece the EPDMs are a plus. Did a tub check and no reg leaks at 3300 psi. Excellent breathing. Let it sit under pressure of 3300 for 12 hours with no apparent pressure loss from the HP seat. Pool dive to follow most likely this weekend.