Saved a MkV from the trash bin

[awap]

I like to dive older Scubapro metal regs and my dive buddy is also catching the bug. He picked up a Mk5/R109 on ebay that really looked good. But a soniccleaning and new soft parts did not stop the slow leak thru the ambient chamber. Close inspection revealed a couple light longitudinal scratched in the piston o-ring seating surface of the ambient chamber (which still had most of its chrome finish intact). I verified the failure mode with an ambient chamber from another Mk5. With spare parts like that no longer available except from the junk yard, I decided to try to polish down the scratches to restore the sealing surface. I used some jewler's polish (Wright's Silver Cream) on the end of my finger and spent 10 minutes polishing the surface. (Careful, the ambient chamber threads may be sharp.) Worked like a charm and another Mk5 is back in service.

[mwhities]

Very good to hear. I'm kinda looking at doing the samething. I'm looking for old regs to "play with and learn"...

Good job!

Michael

[Dustinh]

Very cool that you can get an old rig like that working again. I hear time and time again that while newer regs are touted as lighter, faster, better and all that, they just "don't breathe like they used to"

[divinginn]

i didnt think you could kill those regs,i wonder how many have over the years truly went bad with no hope for repair,guess i will keep diving them till something more reliable comes along,might take 30 years to figure that one out.

[mobeeno]

Originally Posted by awap

I like to dive older Scubapro metal regs and my dive buddy is also catching the bug. He picked up a Mk5/R109 on ebay that really looked good. But a soniccleaning and new soft parts did not stop the slow leak thru the ambient chamber. Close inspection revealed a couple light longitudinal scratched in the piston o-ring seating surface of the ambient chamber (which still had most of its chrome finish intact). I verified the failure mode with an ambient chamber from another Mk5. With spare parts like that no longer available except from the junk yard, I decided to try to polish down the scratches to restore the sealing surface. I used some jewler's polish (Wright's Silver Cream) on the end of my finger and spent 10 minutes polishing the surface. (Careful, the ambient chamber threads may be sharp.) Worked like a charm and another Mk5 is back in service.

Great info, awap, you are the Mk5 master.