Sticky valve

[fenne1ca]

I was wondering if anybody had some sage advice for me on this matter: My second valve sticks just slightly on its way up. It's been oiled frequently, and it still does this. My thought is that this is caused by a minor loss of plating on the valve. What can I dio about this? Is it possible to order new valves from King (who made the body of my Gnagey concoction), or should I look into a re-plating job? I'd like to be as thrifty as possible with this, so price estimates on repairs or replacements would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Dan Schultz]

It's not likely that a little plating loss is causing your 2nd valve to be 'sticky'. There are several things that can cause a problem like this. Could be as simple as just giving the horn a good detergent cleaning inside. Could be a valve guide causing problems. Could be a distorted valve casing port. Could be a bent piston. The list goes on.

If a good cleaning doesn't help, you should take it to an experienced repairman.

[iiipopes]

My first valve always sticks the first gig I play after a beer gig unless I clean it out first.

As Tuba Tinker said, there are a number of causes for a valve sticking:
1) clean and reoil to get rid of gunk/slide grease migrating into the valve/dried food particles/dried beer/dried sugar from soda pop/etc.
2) not pushing straight down
3) a ding on the valve circuit causing a tad of binding in the casing
4) valve corks & felts need renewing so that the normal travel of the valve is realigned
5) a ding somewhere else that the final metal compression found its way to a valve casing (especially with Yammys)
6) valve guide giving out and the valve rotating too much in its casing
7) bent, dented or dinged piston
8 ) bent valve stem rubbing the valve cap
9) valve caps overtightened causing the casings to warp
10) something wrong with the spring, as off center, a center loop stretched, etc
11) any porting in the valve clogged
12) wrong valves -- switched valves
13) not relubricated properly after cleaning
14) insufficent cleaning which actually leaves a speck of gunk behind

and the list goes on.

If a good cleaning and reoiling doesn't take care of it, then, to the tune of the William Tell Overture, "To the tech, to the tech, to the tech, tech tech!"

[The Jackson]

If this is a newer horn for you, you might to try a different kind of oil. My Yamaha's valves just wouldn't respond to the regular oil that was sent with it, or the Blue Juice that I had. Now, I use Hetman's #1 Light oil, and that made things a lot easier (though still finicky... ).

[Donn]

If this is a newer horn for you, you might to try a different kind of oil.

If it's a problem that should probably be repaired, but you're not going to do that, you might be able to get it working by mixing a little motor oil into your petroleum based valve oil. Just a little will make it more viscous than any valve oil you can get.