Inflator valve removal/replacement

[mathauck0814]

Forgive me if this is covered elsewhere. I have the Fusion with the Bullet skin. I took the skin off to do some maintenance on the core layer and had to remove the valves in order to do so. When I removed the valves, I didn't see anything in the way of glue, caulk or other sealant. Did my work, replaced the skin, screwed the valves back in.

To say that the last three dives have tested the thermal qualities of my undergarments while saturated would be an understatement. I'm clearly leaking through the inflator valve (dry from there up, mostly). Am I missing something?

Two possible scenarios that I might have botched:

1) There is a clear plastic gasket, does that go on the interior or exterior of the core?
2) The skin is currently layered between the valve halves, should I have attached the valve to the core only and then put the skin over top?

Let me know if anyone else has had a problem here. I've unscrewed, reoriented, screwed in, screwed in tighter, etc. Clearly I'm not doing something right.

In any case, my Whites' woes continue...

 

[WHITES Justin]

Does your suit have the Si-Tech or Apeks valves?

 

[mathauck0814]

Si-Tech

 

[zekethesheik]

Mathauck... I have a Fusion with the Tech skin and SI Tech valves.. I just took the inflator out and had a look. The thin gasket is on the inside, and my Tech skin is between the 2 halves. The skin rides inside a ridged grommet looking thing and the halves are screwed tight over that. The Bullet skin might be a tad different. Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more info or even a pic. Hope your Fusion woes are minimal! I've been diving for 40 years, and the Fusion is the best dry suit I've ever been in.

 

[TSandM]

I have found that, the majority of the times that I have taken valves off and put them back on, they leak, and I have to keep tightening them up for a while until they eventually either don't, or the seep is small enough that I can live with it.

 

[mathauck0814]

That seems to have been the case here too, I continued tightening the valve over the course of about half a dozen dives and I finally had a dry one.

 

[WHITES Justin]

With the Si Tech system the clear gasket goes on the inside of the suit and the outer skin sits under the lip of the rubber grommet on the outside of the suit. After that you should be able to just hand tighten the valve.

Some things to check out that the skin hasn't popped out of the grommet, the rubber gasket is clean, or that the valve itself isn't full of grime.

 

[Aqua-Andy]

The only way I could get mine to stop leaking was to use a very and I mean very small amount of RTV silicone between the valve and gasket. In fact mine came from the factory with silicone sealing the valves.

 

[mathauck0814]

I didn't need any silicone. Just hoping it stays dry long enough for my new replacement suit to show up. Struggling with my whites for the last three years and I'm finally done. Two weeks and I'm done with this miserable experiment.