Taking apart a Scubapro MK5 - what tools do I need?

[buddhasummer]

"A good tool or seven makes it fun, instead of frustrating. Thanks for being a good sport."

 

[sod kamus]

I serviced them for years without any specific tools. for removong the HP seats, i used a plier designed for opening seeger rings.

For unscrewing the body of the reg, I used a tool originally designed for adjusting the spring load of the shock absorber of my motorbike.

You're a bad apple!

If you don't use the "authorized" ScubaPro Universal Tool that you must buy from ScubaPro after the ScubaPro service tech course from ScubaPro, you're surely going to hell, Sir! ScubaPro says hell has a seperate room for divers who don't play the Dive Industry proprietary "restricted to dealers only" game.

I guess you can sense I started hating ScubaPro years ago, just for their marketing foolishness. I have three perfectly good MK25, MK5, etc regs in the "extra junk" pile now. Swapped them all to HOG regs, where I can go online and buy the service kits from about anyone and service them myself like a regular intelligent human should be able to. I bought out some stock from a scuba shop that was going out of business in New York so I have ScubaPro kits I don't need now that ScubaPro wouldn't sell me.

When the LDS charged me $325 to service regs and wouldn't let me provide the kits that ScubaPro manufactured and sold, I was done with ScubaPro.

 

[lowwall]

You're a bad apple!

If you don't use the "authorized" ScubaPro Universal Tool that you must buy from ScubaPro after the ScubaPro service tech course from ScubaPro, you're surely going to hell, Sir! ScubaPro says hell has a seperate room for divers who don't play the Dive Industry proprietary "restricted to dealers only" game.

Funny, but addressed to the wrong person:

I was trained to service Scubapro regulators at the Scubapro factory where they are built, here in Italy at Casarza Ligure (near Genoa).
Usually only people already working for a diving shop is admitted, they made an exception for me.

 

[sod kamus]

I suppose it would be pretty simple to get yourself in a ScubaPro tech class easy enough if you had the $. I'm just the kind of guy who thinks that servicing a reg should be something the average guy with normal intelligence should be able to do without all the marketing BS. I should be able to buy a ScubaPro kit (which is hardly anything more than new o-rings) and service my own reg without having to pay the shop monkey $140 per hour.

It's the dive shop money-machine mob-control mentality I don't like. When I went thru the PSI cylinder inspection, Oxy clean, and valve tech course years ago I was in the class with one of the guys from the local dive shop. After I got certified by PSI I had taken my cylinder to the dive shop to get filled. The tank money looksed at the VIP sticker and said they couldn't fill my cylinder because it didn't have their vip sticker on it. I asked the guy why and he said, "Well, we don't know the quality of your VIP inspection and if you can inspect to DOT standards."

The dive boat had just pulled in and unloaded and there were about 20 customers in the shop. As the owner walked by I said (rather loudly) "Well. Since your boy Sammy and I were in the same PSI class, and since I scored higher on the PSI exam that Sammy did, that means that your VIP inspection is actually more at question than mine, right?"

The shop owner was like, "shhh, shhh", and told the guy "Go fill the tank!" LOL

If HOG and Diverite and Hollis will sell me a reg service kit, then there's no legitimate reason ScubaPro can't also except they're being money greedy butt holes who want me to go to the dealership service center and pay $100 for a $39 oil change, in my opinion.

Glad you got ScubaPro training. If more people could service their own gear and understand how it works, diving would be more fun. Nobody likes a mafia-racket controlled dive hobby.

The firearms and auto industries realized that decades ago. I don't have to go to Colt and by a Colt dealer available only kit to rebuilt my AR. I can go to any good gun shop and buy the parts and rebuilt an entire AR lower. It's my choice if I want to use Colt parts of substandard chinese made crap parts, and in America that's how it should be...up to the owner, not up to the mafia-racket controlled industry. I can go to Auto Zone and buy any part for my F-150 and every store has it or can order it. I don't have to go to the Ford plant and buy the part from Ford. I can choose the Ford part, an OEM part, or a crappy part from China that I'll have to replace in a year or two, it's up to me.

But that's just my radical opinion on how a free market should work.

 

[jellycatsdad]

so I got the the multitool - the ambient spring chamber/turret cap is seized solid. Almost mangled the empty CO2 cartridge I used to hold the reg in a vise. But I see why having the right tools makes the job more pleasant. The HP piston knife edge and seat looks like they are in fine shape. I’m going to stop here until I get more tools and the service kit.

I’m going to order that reg holder tool(or an 7/16” grade 10 bolt) and double hook. Not in a rush. The reg’s having a date with some Kroil as we speak.

 

[lowwall]

I’m going to order that reg holder tool(or an 7/16” grade 10 bolt) and double hook. Not in a rush. The reg’s having a date with some Kroil as we speak.

If that doesn't work, chuck it in the freezer for a few hours. You are trying to break up salt crystals (rather than rust, so the Kroil may or may not work) so even a little bit of movement from thermal contraction often does the trick.

Mechanics like to take torches to things for the thermal expansion instead, but I wouldn't subject my regs to that. Maybe if the freezer trick doesn't work, go straight from the freezer to a pot of boiling water.

Obviously, you'd want to replace all the o-rings after this kind of treatment.

 

[jellycatsdad]

If that doesn't work, chuck it in the freezer for a few hours. You are trying to break up salt crystals (rather than rust, so the Kroil may or may not work) so even a little bit of movement from thermal contraction often does the trick.

Mechanics like to take torches to things for the thermal expansion instead, but I wouldn't subject my regs to that. Maybe if the freezer trick doesn't work, go straight from the freezer to a pot of boiling water.

Obviously, you'd want to replace all the o-rings after this kind of treatment.

Well, I do have a canister of legit MAPP gas in the garage as well as a heat gun… I’m hoping this doesn’t go to full send.

 

[jellycatsdad]

If that doesn't work, chuck it in the freezer for a few hours. You are trying to break up salt crystals (rather than rust, so the Kroil may or may not work) so even a little bit of movement from thermal contraction often does the trick.

And that worked - I used a big adjustable wrench with the Scuba Tools Scubapro multi-tool for leverage. Yep, a good bit of verdigris on the threads.

I’m calling it a night until I get a few more tools and the service kit. But the double hook scares me.

 

[boat sju]

@jellycatsdad Do you have an ultrasonic cleaner?

 

[jellycatsdad]

@jellycatsdad Do you have an ultrasonic cleaner?

I do. The next step is a spa day in 50% H3PO4 with a little anionic surfactant mixed 1:640 with water for 5 minutes followed with in Dawn or Simple Green Pro HD with hot water in the ultrasonic for 10 minutes.

The reg was apart - I put it back together until I get the service kit(or the o-rings/HP seat) so I can keep track of the assembly.