Question about Sterling valves/springs

[clez89]

I've been having some noisy spring issues with my Sterling for a few days. When checking out the valves, I noticed that the springs do not slot into the indentation on the bottom valve cap but sit on top it. Also, my Besson springs happen to slot perfectly into these indentations and create far less noise. Is this supposed to happen? My initial thought is that the springs I've received from Custom and the valve cap bottoms I have just aren't compatible.

Thoughts from any of the Sterling owners out there?

[davewerden]

They should seat, in my exprience. Have you tried inverting them?

[daruby]

Flip the springs over. (I assume they are tapered)

[clez89]

I tried inverting them but it didn't work. These springs aren't tapered.

[carbogast]

Every once in a while my (tapered) springs will make some noise when playing certain notes. I have a Virtuoso. Reseating them seems to fix the problem. When I am inserting the pistons after oiling, I will often hear a "click" which can be avoided if the valves are just off vertical. My theory about the click is that one of the spring coils is briefly hanging up on the piston as it's inserted. I don't know if this is related to the spring noise when playing, but am paying attention to it. I've assumed that the wide end of a tapered spring is the bottom. Is that true?

- Carroll

[daruby]

Yup...wide end goes down. It is possible that the original poster has a different valveset than the Bauerfind set used in most Virtuosos. Older horns used something different and a few newer horns have used Cerveny valvesets. This could account for not having the tapered springs. - Doug

[davewerden]

The final thing to try is to take off the bottom cap and look at the fit of the spring. If the bottom cap's indentation has the least build-up inside it, the spring may not fit properly. Take a toothpick and really clean out that ring; then see if the spring will seat.

If the spring can be seated when the cap and spring are removed from the horn, then another trick that might make them easier to deal with once assembled is to apply a little grease around the very top and bottom of the spring. Use a compatible slide grease - if you use synthetic oil, then use sythetic slide grease, for example. The slide grease will let the spring slide into the slot more readily and will also tend to quiet vibrations.