Help with broken regulator spring

[lifeofbrian77]

My compressor regulator/filter stopped working and I was shocked to see the spring inside in 4 pieces. My question is, does it have to be a spring? Cant it just be a tube/pipe that pushes on the valve when the knob is turned, or does the spring offer some safety or something else?

You can see on the pic below, the spring fits over the brass screw on the right and pushes into the valve/diaphragm on the left. Maybe the spring turns the nut and the screw then pushes on the diaphragm?

I could just try it, but I don't want to do anything stupid.ops:

 

[basepaint]

I would just go buy another spring at the hardware or auto parts store and see if that works for you,Should only cost a few dollars at most

 

[Robbyrockett2]

I would just go buy another spring at the hardware or auto parts store and see if that works for you,Should only cost a few dollars at most

Exactly, If you use something solid your regulator will turn into an on/off switch

 

[AndreZA]

I doubt you can fit something solid in place of the spring.

http://www.about-air-compressors.com/regulators.html

 

[jord001]

I would just go and try to find a spring OR buy a cheap regulator and use the spring out of that.

Lee

 

[Malky]

The spring is tensioned to suit your particular regulator so finding the correct spring might be difficult or time consuming, my advice would to just buy a new regulator, you could get one for around 25 quid, just be sure that all the openings are the same size and the new regulator is equal or slightly more than the maximum bar on your old one, for example if the max bar on your present one is 8 bar then 8, 10 or 12 bar would be fine, you rely on your regulator for precise control and usually when something fails in an item like this other problems can follow, meaning it's hard to say if the broken spring has damaged the diaphragm or anything else which could also stop it functioning properly, so unless you know enough to know everything else is fine replacing the whole unit is your safest option.

 

[lifeofbrian77]

Ok, cheers all, I've ordered a new one. I was just so keen to paint something .