SiTech Drysuit Inflator Valve Disassembly
Disclaimer: Please do not attempt this unless you are proficient at DIY. There is no place here for ham-fisted operations, and you take full responsible for any results of your work. This is presented for interests’ sake, and is not meant in any way to be advisory or technical or warranted.
Thanks to LCF for her thread "SiTech Exhaust Valve Disassembly", which helped me and gave me the idea for this thread.
Thanks to RN for explaining the dissassembly to me, and to LCF for improvements.
Unscrew the bases of the Inflator. For the purposes of this write-up, the outside of the inflator is the ‘top’, and the inside is the ‘bottom’. You must remove the pretty decal over the inflator button on the top of the inflator valve. I used a knife point, to gently get under and pry up the sticker. It will not stay stuck back by itself, in my experience, so set it aside for gluing back on later. Others, however, haven’t had a problem, and have opined that it is more difficult to find the center of the valve in dry gloves when you don’t have the decal applied. Be careful if you add glue, as it could make the next service a PITA.
Now you have this outside piece. See the Allen Wrench socket on the bottom:
Underneath the sticker is another, smaller, allen screw. I’ve heard it can be a Phillips screw, too. The two sockets are sex bolts – one screws into the other. Get two properly sized allen wrenches (or screwdriver as needed), and you unscrew them like this.
Remove the top button, spring, and screw. Might as well clean these up while you have them out . . .
Please note I am using the allen wrench to push the piston from top to bottom – I am not unscrewing anything.
Pull the piston out from the bottom. There are two O-rings, “#8”, I’ve been told. Of course, they are not in any of the “normal” O-ring kits.
NO NEED FOR THIS: I gently inserted a screwdriver blade and worked it around to pop the top off. There is no need to do this. The plastic pieces are nothing but a holding and piviot point on which the inflator swivels. There is no sealing surfaces inside. If you feel some grinding or something, I suggest pivoting the heck out of it under a faucet to wash out grime.
This is important, and I apologize as the picture did not come out. First, please *ignore* the brown O-ring on the Schrader valve. (Field attempt to stop the leak.) Inside the Schrader valve hole (into which the Schrader valve fitting threads), on the bottom of the hole, was an O-ring I had to fish out. (See the yellow dotted line, which marks the location.) This O-ring was pinched, and probably allowed water to seep into the area between the two O-rings on the piston. (Pink Arrow) That means that each time I pushed the inflator, I got a splish of water. (Sorry if that is too technical . . . )
I do not know the purpose of the plastic fork, but if you gently feed the fitting back in, and spin the fork as the fitting is touching the O-ring, it would be a fine way to make sure the O-ring is where it should be!!!
Now, I have heard of advice to fix a sticking inflator button. One sprays lube into the fitting on the assembled valve, then hooks up an inflator hose, and exercises the valve. You can see that the lube would work on the piston O-rings, so now you know why they become unstuck when lube is applied.
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Originally Posted by Jax
