Beware the Universal Poppet

[kevint]

I recently bought some universal poppet valves that seemed to work OK, but on disassembling, I noticed that the bottom coil of the spring had slipped down between the dip tube flared end and the post thread. This had deformed the flared end and spring coil. I repaired the flared end by re-shaping with light hammer blows after first removing the o ring and replacing it in the housing. The problem would seem that some springs are of a thinner diameter. Thicker springs can’t do this. I checked with my other uni poppets and the spigot that hold the o ring is also slightly bigger on the poppet with the thicker springs,. The photo shows the two types side by side.