Aqualung Calypso maintenance

[smellzlikefish]

I'm sure this question has been posted before. My dad recently gave me his Aqualung Calypso IV regulator and I managed to find someone with the service parts, but they said this might be the last year he could do it. Are there any aftermarket parts available for this workhorse of the 70's? While I have other regs, I'd love to continue using this one for the novelty and I hate to see good equipment gather dust. Any ideas?

 

[BSea]

The big problem is the HP seat. I have a VI that I serviced about 2 years ago. I got the last HP seat from my LDS, and he didn't know where any more were. I can't think any anything else consumable that you couldn't find a replacement. You could try and polish the seat with very fine sandpaper, if it develops a creep.

 

[DoubleHoseDiver]

Go to Vintage Double Hose and look on the forum under single hose regs. PM slonda828 for parts....tell him Tim sent you. Tim

 

[John C. Ratliff]

The big problem is the HP seat. I have a VI that I serviced about 2 years ago. I got the last HP seat from my LDS, and he didn't know where any more were. I can't think any anything else consumable that you couldn't find a replacement. You could try and polish the seat with very fine sandpaper, if it develops a creep.

I believe that the Calypso VI is a piston regulator, and that the seat is fairly easy to access. If this is the regulator I think it is, it will look like the USD catalog I've copied. It has two moving parts in the first stage, the piston and the spring. The seat is not a moving part, but can be coaxed out of its position and re-surfaced. It's pretty tough from what I can tell (I have one, but haven't gone into the seat as it was not necessary).

You haven't indicated that there is a HP leak at all with this regulator. If there is no leak, then all that needs to be done is to look inside for corrosion, clean it if necessary, replace the sintered filter (standard), and put it back together. If there is a leak, and if you are going to try polishing the HP seat, it would be better to get it out of the regulator and polish it on a marble sharpening stone (the finest stone available). I've done that with Mistral HP seats. A very fine emery cloth would also work, if it is flat on the surface. The O-rings may need to be lubricated or replaced (unlikely), but that is about it. This regulator is a tank, and since it is a flow-through piston, with the LP opening right off the piston opening, it has extremely good breathing characteristics.

John

 

[DoubleHoseDiver]

I have a Calypso VI, that was my second regulator, I think I might rebuild. John, do you know how to set the IP on this one? Tim

 

[BSea]

I believe that the Calypso VI is a piston regulator, and that the seat is fairly easy to access. If this is the regulator I think it is, it will look like the USD catalog I've copied. It has two moving parts in the first stage, the piston and the spring. The seat is not a moving part, but can be coaxed out of its position and re-surfaced. It's pretty tough from what I can tell (I have one, but haven't gone into the seat as it was not necessary).

You haven't indicated that there is a HP leak at all with this regulator. If there is no leak, then all that needs to be done is to look inside for corrosion, clean it if necessary, replace the sintered filter (standard), and put it back together. If there is a leak, and if you are going to try polishing the HP seat, it would be better to get it out of the regulator and polish it on a marble sharpening stone (the finest stone available). I've done that with Mistral HP seats. A very fine emery cloth would also work, if it is flat on the surface. The O-rings may need to be lubricated or replaced (unlikely), but that is about it. This regulator is a tank, and since it is a flow-through piston, with the LP opening right off the piston opening, it has extremely good breathing characteristics.

John

I agree that you don't need to polish the seat unless there is a creep. I used 1600 or 2000 grit wet dry sandpaper when I did a calypso seat for one of the early diaphram models with no model number designation (from 65 or 66), and should not be confused with the Ops Calypso IV or My VI. I don't know if the seat material is different, but the method I used worked for me.

 

[Nemrod]

Take a lighter to the seat.

The seat can be shimmed or shortened and or spring can be shimmed to adjust IP.

N

 

[Hallmac]

Find a dive shop that has been around for a very long time. I still have 5 new seats in the package and at least 50 used ones in a box. They will be around for a while. I use them to service equipment for our customers as needed.

No, I am not offering them for sale. I am just reassuring the poster that his unit is still rebuildable.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I have a Calypso VI, that was my second regulator, I think I might rebuild. John, do you know how to set the IP on this one? Tim

Tim,

I just tore my Calypso-J down, and discovered some things I thought I knew, but not completely. I thought there was an easy way to adjust the interstage pressure on the later Calypso regulators. These have a bit different structure than the one pictured in the catelog that I uploaded here. In the one pictured, the housing where the LP hose screws in is screwed directly into the regulator. This doesn't allow the LP accessory outlets to swivel.

Later, they put a different housing together which has a swiveling unit on it. This extends the housing outward, and provides for another improvement. That improvement is a means of fine-tuning the IP. Basically, the gross IP is set by the main spring, and you can use washers to increase the spring tension. This would increase the IP. To balance that out, USD put two in-line springs (one inside the other), held in by a nut which screws into the outlet channel in the housing above the piston. This can increase the tension on the piston from the top, which would balance the tension of the main spring and add some downward pressure onto the piston toward the seat. This spring is adjusted with what looks like a 1/8 inch Allen wrench. In this way, the IP can be fine-tuned using the Allen wrench, but you need to take the LP hose off first, and that (on this model) can be difficult. I had to take the swiveling LP accessory unit off to remove the LP hose, as there really is not another good way of doing it.

So use Nemrod's method for the gross IP, then fine tune it with the Allen wrench.

By the way, I did get the HP seat out of the housing, and it has a projection on the top which is a hollow rod. To re-surface this HP seat, you would first have to either pull this rod out (it form a base for the seat material, and supports it--it may be difficult or not possible to remove), or also grind down this projection. You would then loose the ability of this tube to ensure that the piston edge was centered.

SeaRat

 

[Slonda828]

I've had varying degrees of success rebuilding the calypso III/IV/VI. They are all internally similar balanced piston regulators. The trick is if you have HP creep then you need to try to resurface it if you don't have access to a new one. You have to be careful though, that seat is pretty soft. I've only had a 50% success rate resurfacing them. I'm still working on a kit for them.