Today, I was getting my 2.5" Sub driver ready for a lake trip (hopefully soon). When I filled up the tank, I noted there was icing in the system and it would not do a blow. The contact is pushing on the Schrader valve, but no propellant is coming out.........The tank still has propellant in it. I did have a blowout of the valve in the first photo and I was able to put it back together, although not as tight of the factory setting. I have attached two photos.....
Icing up in the ballast system
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the frosty blow-valve tells me that the valve itself is leaking. Put water in the ballast tank and you will see bubbles of propellant gas getting by the Shrader valve.
DavidWho is John Galt? -
What he said.
Icing occurs with prolonged discharge or discharge of gas at too high a rate. Many times immersion in the water will make the icing much less likely to occur, but you don't want a leak.
Of course, you're doing your pre-run cylinder check every time, so spotting this leak would have happened anyway, right? Right? ;)
BobComment
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Well, sort of. I charged the tank and did the leak test. Very small amount of bubbles coming from the internal Schrader valve, but no gas. I operated it a few times with success, but then nothing came out. All of a sudden, a large bang and the aforementioned hose came loose again! Any way to fix this???????1 PhotoComment
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Yep. Replace the hose... ;)
You'll need really steady hands and thin gripping tools. This is one area that the new MSD subdrivers really shine. The original SubDrivers worked amazingly well, but performing maintenance and/or repairs is challenging.
I can't see where this failed. Is that at the restrictor? You might be able to get away with cutting back 1/4" of hose and simply re-attaching.
BobComment
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