dodgy regulator behavior.

[Psychosaffa]

my regulator has started doing something weird. i would weld for a while, and after stopping for about a minute, it would blow some gas out the sides, almost like a purge.
have no idea why its doing this as it worked perfectly before.

 

[madkayaker]

Sounds broken to me. Best o change it there is very little serviceable inside and the pressures on input side are very high

 

[chunkolini]

Is it leaking around the gland? (I think it is called that) the male piece that sits inside the neck of the bottle.
I was given one that leaked there, and cleaned up the end of it with 240 grit wet and dry and it worked fine afterwards. Took me a while of rubbing it but worth the effort.

 

[Shox Dr]

There's very little inside: a rubber seal/membrane with a brass insert in the middle to shut off/control the gas, with a spring behind i, that's it. The problem is finding a kit to rebuild it. (They are very cheap)

If you are capable of stripping it down, go for it, just be warned you are dealing with a very high pressure item while in service.

 

[Psychosaffa]

cheers guys.
i may give rebuilding it a miss. the chance of a co2 rocket flying around and destroying my truck is just not worth it. can the gauges be unscrewed and kept for another use?

 

[madkayaker]

Gauges can be unscrewed but there is often lock tight on there thread so good luck

 

[Robotstar5]

Gauges can be unscrewed but there is often lock tight on there thread so good luck

They do come off, it's getting a spanner into some of them due to other fittings getting in the way, there's also copper crush washers underneath to seal them.