R109 lever height

[Luis H]

The lever in the left is what my LDS has as the newest replacement lever.

I think I have one or two levers like the one on the right, but I am fairly certain that all my regulators are using a lever similar to the one in the center.


BTW, whish is the duro poppet? I just buy the parts from my LDS and haven’t kept up with the names. It would be great if someone can post a picture of the different poppets.
Thanks

 

[halocline]

I think these guys are calling the current G200 poppet the duro poppet. It's an unbalanced plastic poppet with a replaceable seat. Most of my 109s have been converted to balanced, so I'm using the s-wing poppet, AKA G250 poppet. I bet that the notch on the duro poppet and s-wing are the same.

Now I don't know whether I have the levers in the middle of couv's 2nd photo or the right. I just know I've never had one with the curly feet.

 

[Couv]

Hello Luis,

Good to have you back. While I'm thinking of it, could you send me an email with your turret retainer drawing as an attachment and state the type of stainless you recommend, please? I'll see if I can find a machine/fab shop to give us an estimate.

Top = S-wing poppet
Bottom = Duro poppet

Cheers,

c

 

[Zung]

Here, Bro.

 

[Texfrazer]

Ahh, now that I see the new photos, I wouldn't disagree that the one I see the most is the one in the middle of the original photo. That first photo looked like the middle one had curvey feet - but now I see that it was an optical illusion from the carpet.

I'll check this weekend to see how many of each I have and report back.

 

[aquaregia]

Okay, my "parts" 109 has the 30deg feet and my "bad breather" has 45 degree feet. The seat of "bad breather" is scored really heavily already, despite it being brand new in March. I'm gonna call that further confirmation of the problem. I think I'm gonna flip the seat and put the 30deg lever into the "bad breather" and see if that takes care of it.

Cheers guys

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Thanks for all of the photos guys.... I just became the proud parent of a R109 Adjustable (via ebay, $15.50, wooohooo! ), it arrived today, looks great externally, will be opened up tonight....

Questions may follow

Best wishes

Sorry for the slight hijack

 

[halocline]

I just discovered something that should have been obvious. The steeper angle (45o) results in a lower lever height, not higher. I just put together a balanced adjustable with the middle lever, and the lever is very high.

If the feet on the lever were flat, inline with the rest of the lever, it would sit at 90o to the air barrel. So if the problem is too high a lever with the new poppet, I would think the answer would be to get one with a steeper angle. This doesn't make sense in terms of the older lever/newer poppet incompatibility that some of us have had.

 

[redacted]

I just discovered something that should have been obvious. The steeper angle (45o) results in a lower lever height, not higher. I just put together a balanced adjustable with the middle lever, and the lever is very high.

If the feet on the lever were flat, inline with the rest of the lever, it would sit at 90o to the air barrel. So if the problem is too high a lever with the new poppet, I would think the answer would be to get one with a steeper angle. This doesn't make sense in terms of the older lever/newer poppet incompatibility that some of us have had.

I suspect that the feet may not sit perpendicular to the axis of the poppet when the reg is properly tuned. How about I bring an extra 109 with a left and middle lever and you bring your right lever and we'll have something to do during the SI on Thursday.

Oops, I just tried to make an old style poppet work with a new lever and they also seem to have some incompatibility. I could install the poppet past the lever (I think) but could not get it to engage the lever at all.

And the plot thickens. I tried the same thing with another 109 and both levers seemed to work OK with both style poppets. And I can't see any obvious difference between the two 109 bodies. The one that will not work is S/N 3511710 which I assume is older than the one that worked OK, S/N 8906510. I don't think we'll have a long enough SI.

Edit: I couldn't leave it there, so I tried a third 109, S/N 3905169. All seemed to work fine. All I can figure is that 7 must not be my lucky number. The worst thing is my wife came I while I have these three 109s scattered about on my desk, stepped over three complete sets of regulators laying on the floor from our trip last week; and just shook her head. Do you think that means I can buy one more?

 

[halocline]

I suspect that the feet may not sit perpendicular to the axis of the poppet when the reg is properly tuned. How about I bring an extra 109 with a left and middle lever and you bring your right lever and we'll have something to do during the SI on Thursday.

I'm going to take apart my G200B, which is the most recent barrel poppet reg I have, and see what the lever looks like. It definitely sits lower than than the b/a I just rebuilt, which makes me suspect that the steeper angle, big feet lever is newer, not older. (Steeper angle results in lower height)

There is no way that the feet can be sitting perpendicular to the poppet, flat against the wings, while the reg is tuned, you're right on that one. However, if you leave the orifice loose or out, install the poppet/spring balance chamber, the lever feet will be perpendicular and the lever will be really high. As you mentioned before, you have to adjust the orifice to really drop the lever to keep it from free-flowing with the diaphragm in place. At first I was thinking that possibly the wings on the older poppets might not be exactly vertical, which would allow them to match up with the 30o angled feet. But the blue poppet that came out of the b/a does have vertical feet.

If you were a bit insane you could try grinding the wings on the plastic poppet to change the angle, rather than bending the lever.

I always thought that the incompatibility had to do with the shape of the feet, not the angle relative to the lever.

The b/a seems to breathe okay; I guess I can put a mouthpiece on it and bring it on Thursday.

Edit: I took apart the G200B, same lever as in the balanced/adjustable, it's the middle lever in Couv's photo.