Scubapro S109 BA conversion not going well

[davehicks]

I'm all done restoring and upgrading these regulators, except for replacing some bolts. I tied one up for now, but someone has offered to mail me some spare bolts for the 109s.

Lots of cleaning, polishing with a dremel tool, upgrading to balanced adjustable, and tuning. They seem to be working well with around 1.5" cracking pressure which seems to be about as good as they get.

I will test them out in the swimming pool before taking them on a dive.

Thanks to @Boarderguy for scavenging these regulators and letting me fix them up. I'll return one to him and keep one for myself. And thanks to @buddhasummer for the necessary parts.

 

[johndiver999]

Glad you got the "S" pointing the right way now. I feel better.

 

[Still Kicking]

Decals upside down .... arrow points down.

 

[Boarderguy]

View attachment 852378
Decals upside down .... arrow points down.
View attachment 852377

I like his custom touches.

 

[Still Kicking]

I like his custom touches.

Ah he's a contrarian

 

[davehicks]

Ah he's a contrarian

I'll go with non-conformist.

Or maybe I didn't notice the arrow or know about logo...

 

[Still Kicking]

I'll go with non-conformist.

Or maybe I didn't notice the arrow or know about logo...

When you think about it, it is more important to come back up than it is to go down

 

[axxel57]

Until 1974 the clamps and screws for the 108-109 were imported from Europe.
The screws were slotted.
In '74 the imperial clamps and screws where implemented with phillips heads.
In the same year the numbering system was changed from six to seven digits.
So if your babies still have only six digits and slotted screws, chances are that they are still metric.
Otherwise you will find a pair of new screws in every BA Service Kit (11.245.045), at least here in Europe.

 

[davehicks]

Until 1974 the clamps and screws for the 108-109 were imported from Europe.
The screws were slotted.
In '74 the imperial clamps and screws where implemented with phillips heads.
In the same year the numbering system was changed from six to seven digits.
So if your babies still have only six digits and slotted screws, chances are that they are still metric.
Otherwise you will find a pair of new screws in every BA Service Kit (11.245.045), at least here in Europe.

Mine are imperial Philips head with 16 threads.

 

[halocline]

I am working a couple of ScubaPro 109s and trying to update them to Balanced Adjustable. The reg bodies are in fair shape, with just some light scratches on the chrome. I took them apart, cleaned them up, and spent some time polishing the chrome with a dremel. The exhaust valve crumbled to bit, but I was able to improvise one from some other spares I had.

I got the BA parts recently from @buddhasummer including:

• 01.020.216 G250V
• 11.159.102p Long crown balance chamber
• 11.250.141 G250V lever
• Swing poppet from a G250V kit

I'm using the original brass orifice. I put it all together and the level/spring tension is super tight. I adjusted the orifice and hooked it to a tank. When it was dialed in to barely leaking and knob full out, it breathes really hard. Magnehelic guage read over 4 inches!

Any ideas about what the problem might be? Seems like maybe the spring is too strong?

I’ll go through and read this entire thread, but the 109 unbalanced poppet uses a much bigger spring than the balanced poppet.

Edit: I read through the thread and saw in your photo the assembly issue. Glad you got it straightened out.

I will mention that there is a little bit of luck-of-the-draw when it comes to fine tuning these regs. I’ve got maybe 8 of them, and they don’t all breathe the same. There are little variances in lever height and spring tension that have an effect. I’ve spent more than a few hours just switching around levers and springs trying, and usually succeeding, in making them tune a little better. What I do is use an inline tool to adjust out any free flow without the diaphragm in place, and then install the diaphragm. Usually that means having to tighten the orifice to drop the lever height a little; but the more you have to do that, the worse it’s goin to perform. There is a little tool for accurately bending those feet to drop the lever a bit, I’d like to get one of those. I tried to do it once with a vise but it turned out awful.

The springs are also a little variable in their tension, unfortunately. We don’t live in a perfect world, lol!