Well there goes that regulator...

So the other day I went to force carb a keg... Cranked the regulator up to 30 PSI, force carbed, and then about 15 mins later went to crank it down to 12PSI and it wouldn't budge. Wound up taking it apart and unscrewing the knob with a wrench, and there was aluminum lodged in the threads of the adjustment bolt (the regulator body is aluminum). It was so strongly jammed in there that I couldn't dislodge it with a screwdriver or knife, it seemed like it had practically welded itself in there. My only choice was to forcibly adjust the knob back to reach 12PSI (using a wrench and plenty of force) to keep the beer flowing while I wait for a new regulator.

Can anyone shed any light on this? I can understand threads seizing if they've been in position for a long time, but in this case it adjusted just fine the first time, and then 15 minutes later it was jammed up. I can also understand stripping threads, but I wasn't putting the bolt in in the first place, it was already fully threaded through and it was just being moved in a few turns more. And in any case, it still seems really weird to me that the metal had practically fused together like that. But, I'm certainly no mechanical engineer, so what do I know...

So far it doesn't appear that the place I bought it from (beverage factory) sells replacement parts, which sucks... The regulator is a Tap Rite 740 series so I should be able to use a replacement body from a similar regulator from another place (though most of these retailers don't actually specify the make/model of the regulators they sell, which makes it hard to be sure)

Perhaps this is a golden opportunity for me to finally switch to twin regulated outputs by wrenching this thing up to 30PSI or so and adding a dual ganged secondary regulator, rather than just buying another primary reg and being no better off than I was before.

 

The problem is called galling and is most commonly the result of over-tightening or mis-threading, but it can occur for other reasons. Aluminum threads & a steel bolt are a setup for galling. Sounds like a flake of metal came off a thread & jammed it, then your efforts to un-jam galled it. If you can get the bolt out, re-thread the regulator & put some anti-seize on the bolt before re-inserting.

 

Ah, yeah, now that I read about 'galling' that sounds about right.

I'm sure I can round up an appropriate tap and die at work to clean this thing up. I had kind of assumed it was a goner, so I'm glad to have some hope of being able to fix it.

Thanks for the info, and the pointer on repair!