anatomy of a poppet valve

I've had kegging on the brain today, so i am sorry for all the questions. I was finally able to get a wrench to go ahead and clean the keg that keg connection (who was supposed to clean it) sent me. No big deal, i figure it's a good learning experience. Well, when i went to remove the gas poppet valve, the thing came apart.

What i mean is that the spring and up rod (for lack of a better term) came apart from the three-legged base. Everything is soaking in oxiclean right now, but are poppet valves supposed to do that? Is this normal or should i mention it to keg connection when i finally hear back from them because it should have been something they caught?

Not supposed to! You may have to put it together then pinch the end that had pulled through the base. If you pinch the tip hard enough (vice grips) then you'll flatten it and it won't pull through. Be careful though, if you flatten too much, you'll make it shorter and it may not seal. Really, they should replace it.

Just an update.

I wrote more in my other thread about another issue i was having with my keg connection order. I'll try to be brief here. The owner got back from vacation today and asked me to give him a call on his cell. After talking the issue over he not only offered to replace the poppet valve, but to also to send me some cleaner to replace the cleaner had to use to clean the keg.

He explained that they clean the keg without taking it apart, so as long as it's holding pressure then they wont check the poppets. That being said, he never tried to stonewall me or try to make me pay for the replacement part. Todd is a top-notch guy and i'll gladly do business with kegconnection.com in the future.