Question Skipping 1st stage Maintenance?
- Thread starter Pearlman
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I'm sure SP will be happy as it's their factory video
You can have another Dropbox account with a different email account. It is all free.
- Messages
- 17,549
- Reaction score
- 9,801
- Location
- Somewhere between here and there
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Ok, I'll try that 
I am just getting familiar with tools and precision (imperial vs metric for example) and I had a few questions about the things I never paid attention to in my life before :-
- Some of the sockets I see online are 12 point (for ex:22mm 3/8” drive to fit the cap of the MK25) while most of the sockets I find online in stock locally are 6 point hex with the 12 point version having a lead time of 10 days typically (imports I suppose) and also overpriced by a huge margin. Can I use a regular 6point socket in place for this specific application? Then I see specs like insertion angles and they seem to be different for different sockets and I am confused.
- I am baffled by why all other sizes seem to be available locally except this specific 12 pt 22mm 3/8 drive socket in my country. What can be the reason? Is it because 22 mm is typically found in 3/4” drives? Anyways I ordered one internationally along with the other set of scuba tools rather than register on a site just to import a single nut or socket but I want to understand this better.
22 won’t fit, 1” for SP, 3/8 drive so it can fit through the hole . Most hex head bolts have 6 sides, a 6 point socket will fit more precisely and provide more surface contact between the socket and the bolt, a 12 point socket will fit more easily onto the head of the bolt but has less contact area, in this application not a big deal. There are kits sold for this and it’s probably best to just buy one of those, it will have the correct socket and a short extension without a locking ball to make it all easy to work with.
halocline
Contributor
I’m not sure if it fits this discussion, but on the topic of skipping maintenance, just today I opened up my MK2, which I believe was last rebuilt at least 20 years ago. It’s been working fine, but I’m considering turning it into an O2 deco reg, so first I wanted to check the inside. It looked basically perfect. So I put it back together until I can get an O2 compatible seat for it, at which point I’ll rebuild and O2 clean it. I didn’t change any o-rings, do any cleaning, nothing. Locked up perfectly at 132 PSI, right where I left it. Those things are truly indestructible.
So I had a Mk10 that I sealed with a DIY SPEC boot and haven't serviced for 10 years. It's finally showing some IP drift, so I'm going to service it soon.
But I lied. While I didn't service the sealed internals, I removed, cleaned and replaced the yoke bolt every year. Just the yoke bolt.
It used to be that regs (like @halocline 's Mk2, possibly), had an oring seal at the neck of the yoke/DIN bolt.
But they were slightly more prone to extrusion, if the bolt loosened.
Now, most of the bolts have an end seal.
They don't extrude as easily, but seawater percolates along the threads at depth and never gets rinsed out, even during soaking. If you wait several years because your IP is stable, you'll never get your connector out without ruining it.
It took four days of Aerokroil dripped into the threads for this bolt to become loose enough to remove, and because of the previous damage with that lousy thin wrench flat, I still had to replace the part.
Lesson? Let your valve mechanism go as long as your IP is stable. But switch out the connector every year, unless it's one of the old designs where the neck oring protects the threads from seawater.
But I lied. While I didn't service the sealed internals, I removed, cleaned and replaced the yoke bolt every year. Just the yoke bolt.
It used to be that regs (like @halocline 's Mk2, possibly), had an oring seal at the neck of the yoke/DIN bolt.
But they were slightly more prone to extrusion, if the bolt loosened.
Now, most of the bolts have an end seal.
They don't extrude as easily, but seawater percolates along the threads at depth and never gets rinsed out, even during soaking. If you wait several years because your IP is stable, you'll never get your connector out without ruining it.
It took four days of Aerokroil dripped into the threads for this bolt to become loose enough to remove, and because of the previous damage with that lousy thin wrench flat, I still had to replace the part.
Lesson? Let your valve mechanism go as long as your IP is stable. But switch out the connector every year, unless it's one of the old designs where the neck oring protects the threads from seawater.
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