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Scuba Forum / General / December 2005Dacor 900 1st Stage Question
During my recent Coz trip, I noticed a problem with one of the 2nd stages that I was using with my sidemount rig... It seems that one of them had a bit of a air leak... Nothing major, but enough to make me want to use that tank first and have my BC inflator hooked to the other tank... Originally, I thought that I needed to adjust the spring tension nut on the 2nd stage, but nothing that I tried while there seemed to work... Now that I'm home, I have a better assortment of tools available and the time to figure out what is wrong, so I'm trying to fix it... The setup consists of two identical Dacor 900 1st stages and two brand new identical non-Dacor 2nd stages that I'm using with them... I've spent the last day or so trying different adjustments on the spring tension nut on the leaking 2nd stage, but I still can't get it to not leak... When I tried hooking the suspect 2nd stage up to the other 1st stage, I was able to adjust it to not leak, but upon putting it back on the original 1st stage, it goes back to leaking... This seems to imply to me that I have a problem with the original 1st stage, possibly an intermediate pressure that is set too high... The only pressure gauge that I have that I can use to measure the IP only goes up to 140 psi (plenty for my Dacor 150 that I use for airing up tires)... When I use this on the Dacor 900s, I get a reading that would be over 160 psi (i.e. both regs peg the needle)... I don't know how much above 160 psi each of the regs are though... I believe that the suspect reg has a higher IP than the one that works acceptably... So, how do I adjust the IP on the Dacor 900 1st stage? There appears to be two discs that can be removed from it... One uses a large flathead screwdriver and the other needs a wrench that has two pins that insert into the two holes in the disc (spanner wrench?)... Opening the disc that needs the flathead screwdriver presents me with what looks like another disc that has an allen wrench socket in it... Before I go any further, it would be nice to know which path to take... Anyone have any info on the Dacor 900 1st stages? You are in luck.... Maybe. I was scanning my DACOR repair manuals into my computer and just happen to have a 900 manual handy. The end with the two holes open up and you will find the adjustment screw which appears to be an allen socket. That will adjust your IP. All of that being said if your IP is high you probably either have a bad HP seat, dried out o-rings or corrosion in your first stage. All of which is fairly easy to fix, if you know how and have the proper tools. Now for the bad news, DACOR is no longer supporting any regulator built before 2000 and parts will and are becoming hard to get. Some of the older DACOR regulators have an odd sized HP seat, most use standard o-rings. Timothy Ewing > During my recent Coz trip, I noticed a problem with one of the 2nd stages > that I was using with my sidemount rig... It seems that one of them had a [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > nice to know which path to take... Anyone have any info on the Dacor 900 1st > stages? >You are in luck.... Maybe. I was scanning my DACOR repair manuals into >my computer and just happen to have a 900 manual handy. The end with [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >2000 and parts will and are becoming hard to get. Some of the older >DACOR regulators have an odd sized HP seat, most use standard o-rings. Whn my IP went too high, it was the HP seat. Quick but somewhat painful fix. OTOH, I have two 900 XLs that have been retired. I think Oak Hill Scuba here still has parts. I might be able to part with one of them, the other is going to go on a pony tank. > Timothy Ewing > [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] >> stages? >>  Signaturedillon 666 permissions of the beast > The end with the two holes open up and you will find the > adjustment screw which appears to be an allen socket. That > will adjust your IP. Yep, that did it... Just needed a bit of a turn to get it to quit the slight leak... > All of that being said if your IP is high you probably either have > a bad HP seat, dried out o-rings or corrosion in your first stage I completely removed the allen socket to see what was behing there... The O-ring looked good and there was only a bit of oxidation / discoloration on the spring (which I cleaned up)... I didn't have the sort of spanner wrench that would be necessary to completely disassemble that part of it though... > Now for the bad news, DACOR is no longer supporting any > regulator built before 2000 and parts will and are becoming hard > to get. Yeah, I've heard that since Mares bought out Dacor, they are dropping support for the previous Dacor product line... Seems they only wanted to buy the name, not the products... I always liked the old Dacor stuff, so I'll try to stick with it if at all possible... I've probably got 7 Dacor 1st stages and probably the same number of 2nds with an odd Sherwood and US Divers thrown in over the years... If it starts getting difficult to find parts, maybe I'll switch to US Divers -- they seem to support their old stuff for quite a few years... I don't like the idea of buying a new reg just to find out that the company will no longer support it in a few years... > You are in luck.... Maybe. I was scanning my DACOR repair manuals into my > computer and just happen to have a 900 manual handy. The end with the two [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Timothy Ewing For those of you who may not remember, Timothy is the author of the infamous fire diving web page. Still selling t-shirts, Timothy? "Normal" IP for a balanced diaphragm regulator is right around 145 most manufactures call for an IP of 142-148. Most second stages will start free flowing at a little over 150, that is generally the tension on the second stage spring. When I do my own regulators I push the limits... 150, right on the edge of free flow, they breath a little better, however they can be a bit finicky. When I do a customers regulator I adjust the IP to what the manufacture specifies. Piston regulators vary from 115-145 depending on the make and manufacture. It is harder to adjust the IP in a piston, you have to take them apart and either add or remove shims to adjust the IP, a real pain for the repair technician. Most of the OLD piston regulators had an external adjustment similar to the diaphragms, for some reason the manufactures of stopped that technology. Timothy Ewing > During my recent Coz trip, I noticed a problem with one of the 2nd stages > that I was using with my sidemount rig... It seems that one of them had a [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > 1st > stages? What a loser. Too fuckin poor to take the sh.t to someone who knows how to fix it. Who gives a f.ck about your cheap a.s garbage. Keep diving with it and never mind the fix .....it'll be just fine. <nothing-of-importance-as-usual> <bitch-slap> > > What a loser. Too fuckin poor to take the sh.t to someone who knows how to > fix it. Who gives a f.ck about your cheap a.s garbage. Keep diving with it > and never mind the fix .....it'll be just fine. Or maybe he took it "to someone who knows how to fix it" and they set the ip too high. That's the pisser about professional repairs - ya always have to retune the damn things when the "professionals" are done replacing the parts. > Or maybe he took it "to someone who knows how to fix it" and > they set the ip too high. Actually, my local dive shop closed down their store that was close to my house... Kind of a bummer since I have a couple of air fill cards from them and now I have to drive 45-60 minutes to get to their nearest store... Of course, it's not on the way to anywhere I would be going diving either... It's interesting that the Dacor 150 had an IP of 130 psi and the 900 was over 160 psi... That might make a bit of a difference when you start swapping 2nd stages among your various 1st stages... Probably ought to get myself an IP gauge so that I can measure the higher IPs on some of the regs... >> > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] >retune the damn things when the "professionals" are done >replacing the parts. The shop I take my gear to asks me little questions like where I want the IP set at. Have I sung the praises of Oak Hill Scuba lately? Signaturedillon 666 permissions of the beast |
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