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Hi there,

I have a great King 2341, that play very well, however the valves of the guide to be of metal makes a lot of noise.
Is there a way to change to nylon guides or plastic?
How can I do this? And where to find?

Thanks

Dante

Matt Walters at Dillon music used to sell a kit to quiet the conn 52,54,56 j series. Should work on 2341 too.shoot him an email.

in the meantime before you get plastic valve guides put a drop of heavy sewing machine oil on the valve guide.
k

As someone already mentioned... you can buy #3-48 nylon screws and trim them to fit. McMaster-Carr sells 'cheesehead' screws. These have a larger head and are easy to trim. Cost is next to nothing for 100 of 'em.

If you REALLY want plastic guides... go the 3 x .5mm route and send DEG $5 each for the guides. You'll have to open the guide holes up to the 3mm thread which means you can't easily go back to the metal guides when you get tired of wearing out the plastic ones.

The REAL truth is that metal guides don't have to be noisy. The click-click is produces when the key 'slaps' the sides of the guide slot as it travels up and down. The spring tries to turn the piston on way going own and the opposite way coming back up. It's just the nature of how springs work. The spring wire stays the same length when it is compressed and the diameter gets slightly larger. A well-fit metal guide should have just enough clearance for it to run free in the slot. Wear on the metal guide produces clearance that a film of oil cannot fill and provide a cushion.

I prefer metal guides but they have to be fit very well to prevent noise.

A piston tuba I purchased recently developed worn guides in less than a year. After close examination, we found that the channels for the guides were very rough and were chewing down the sides of the tongue on the guide. The valve would then move from one side to the other as Dan mentioned. The channels were then dressed, by burnishing the groove so the metal was smooth and new guides installed. So far so good. They will still wear but not quite as fast.

MikeMason wrote:Matt Walters at Dillon music used to sell a kit to quiet the conn 52,54,56 j series. Should work on 2341 too.shoot him an email.

I did it.
Thats a good way. But I will purchase new springs too.

bloke wrote:I'm thinking the King valve guide thread size is 3-48 (not 100% sure - sorry!)

You can purchase same-thread nylon screws off the internet and cut the heads into appropriately-sized rectangles with a single-edged razor blade or Exacto knife.

Thanks, Bloke!
I finally hit my frustration limit, so after a quick TubeNet search brought me to this thread, I ordered a $3.00 bag of a hundred 3-48 nylon screws.
I'm too clumsy with a knife, so I used a Harbor Freight variable-speed Dremel-clone and a few minutes later, I had a full set of four 2341 nylon valve guides plus a few spares.
I'm delighted -almost giddy- with the result: so smooth and quiet with so little effort!

BTW, I'd never before removed valve guides, but a small (4 or 6" - didn't pay much attention to which one I grabbed) Crescent adjustable wrench with its wide, smooth jaws worked well for me.

I’d keep the metal valve guides, personally. Had nylon guides on my Besson and they stripped after one year.