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Post by george on Sept 12, 2016 3:25:04 GMT -8
Over this past two weeks I have had a chance encounter with a great guy from down under and now lives and works here in Durham NC, His name is Peter Buzzacott he is the Director of Injury Monitoring and Prevention for DAN. He saw me with my DA double hose and was really impressed. We talked for a few hours and he also has an interest in vintage diving as he is a photo bug as well and he dose a lot of tech diving caves and the like, I told him that the double hose route was the best if you do a lot of photography. My question is he would like to get his Snark III Silver up and going, I have it at my house now and started the prosses of cleaning and refurbishing, most of the rubber is in good shape and would like to know if anyone has parts or a source for said parts, the reg. had been in storage for the last 30 years, so things like the clamp cover for the hoses are dry rotted. Any help would be greatly appreciate, and I know I will have a few questions over the next few weeks? Thanks
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Post by herman on Sept 12, 2016 6:29:01 GMT -8
Parts for the Nemrods are hard to come by, there are a few still that can be had but you need a contact in Spain to get most of them. Then there is the issue of no LP or HP ports which he may want/need. For hoses, you are better off with a USD or Voit loop since you can get those new (reproductions). Also, keep in mind that the Nemrods are metric. Many people think the OPV (which you MUST keep in operation)is a 3/8-24, it is NOT, it is a 10 x 1 (I think, metric for sure)metric.
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Post by nikeajax on Sept 12, 2016 7:32:45 GMT -8
Do a search on the web for said reg. I believe there is a German fellow who has a rebreather site, that has hotrodded the poo out of his. I noticed he took John's idea of making a deflector so that the blast from the venturi nozzles doesn't effect the main diaphragm.. He also made a tee where the OPV goes, getting rid of it and running peripheries, octo and BCD hose. The octo if it is downstream, acts as an OPV. The site is in German but you can run it through a translator. Also, since it does have a mushroom valve unique to it, can be hard to get, so when those go, just stuff a duckbill into it: that does work!
JB
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Post by nikeajax on Sept 12, 2016 8:59:19 GMT -8
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Post by surflung on Sept 12, 2016 12:08:59 GMT -8
- I have successfully SERVICED two Snark IIIs and they are excellent breathing regulators. I learned a few things from contributors to both this Forum as well as the VDH Forum: 1. You can replace the diaphragm with a brand new silicone Mistral diaphragm from Scuba Museum or VDH. 2. Ease of breathing can actually be improved with the US Divers mouthpiece and hoses. 3. Internal parts MAY be available from Enrique Dauner of Spain (find him on facebook). 4. You can jam a duckbill into the exhaust port if your original exhaust mushroom is no good. This doesn't work as well as the original but it worked for me until I was able to get a replacement of the original from Enrique.
- Both of my Snark IIIs had a leaking 1st stage diaphragms. When I disassembled them, I found that they were originally assembled with a paper gasket that had degraded with time. This is the smaller, thick rubber 1st stage diaphragm and they look identical in diameter to the 1st stage diaphragm on DA Aqua-Masters. On the Snark III, this diaphragm has a rubber ridge or edge thickness doubler. I left that alone. But I found that a brand new phenolic washer from the first stage diaphragm of a DA Aqua-Master made a perfect direct replacement for the paper washer. These washers are available in Nylon as well from VDH. When I re-assembled the first stage using this new washer, I had no more leaky 1st stage diaphragm. - SeaRat impressed on me the importance of checking the "3rd stage" to be sure it is working properly. The 2nd stage has an upstream valve seat and it can over-pressure if there is a leak in the 1st stage seat. The "3rd" stage is actually an overpressure release valve... It's a real simple spring and seal assembly that's easily disassembled, cleaned, checked, and re-assembled. - That done, there were no more leaks and no problems. I reassembled each of these Snark IIIs and they both work as good or better than my DA Aqua-Master regs. - This is my most recently completed Snark III project:
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 12, 2016 14:17:53 GMT -8
There is an option for a couple of LP hoses, or an inflator hose/octopus second stage. If you can find the metric splitter shown below, that conversion is pretty easy. If you use this, and have an octopus second stage mounted that is a downstream second stage, you don't any longer need the overpressure relief valve as the second stage would then also function as an overpressure relief mechanism, just as it does on all single hose regulators. Also, at least a few of the later Snark III regs did have a HP port built into the first stage. If you use the exhalation mushroom valve, it will probably leak slightly when in a vertical position. And this is simply a design feature, due to this being a very large exhaust valve, and this regulator having a low breaking pressure (about 1/2 inch of water pressure). The covers of the mouthpiece's clamps being deteriorated does not affect the regulator, except for aesthetics, at all. But the mouthpiece itself, as Eban said above, is smaller and the openings smaller, leading to restrictions on breathing efforts. Removing the non-return from then take hose helps this out, as does using USD/Voit hose/mouthpiece. I got a Heinke mouthpiece from Vintage Frank in Germany last year, and it is now on my Snark III. Another new option would be to get one of the brand new mouthpieces from Vintage Double Hose, but this option would also require getting new hoses as this mouthpiece takes a USD-type hose. The other observation I had about the Snark III is that it had a Venturi coming out of multiple holes, some of which were pointed up so as to hit the diaphragm. This led to it pushing the diaphragm up, rather than allowing the full Venturi effect. To stop this from happening on mine, I put a small plastic covering as a baffle from a milk jug over the venturi. This kept the venturi air from hitting the diaphragm, and noticeably improved the breathing performance. John
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Post by george on Sept 13, 2016 5:43:58 GMT -8
Thanks for all the help I may just tell my friend if he would like to put some money into this it may work for him but for now is a nice museum piece
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Post by surflung on Sept 13, 2016 8:01:31 GMT -8
- Geez, I thought we responded with enthusiasm and encouragement.
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 13, 2016 11:20:30 GMT -8
I would like to second Eban's post above, that this is not a museum piece, but a very viable regulator to be used. We may have overwhelmed you a bit with all the routes you can go to get this regulator back into service. But know it is a very nice regulator.
John
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Post by george on Sept 14, 2016 3:41:11 GMT -8
Thanks guys, I myself would use it but if he will not put the money into it well lets say it may become mine!!
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 14, 2016 7:33:35 GMT -8
It may not take much, other than cleaning, to get it going again. These Snark IIIs are pretty robust regulators.
John
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Post by nikeajax on Sept 14, 2016 9:04:11 GMT -8
- That done, there were no more leaks and no problems. I reassembled each of these Snark IIIs and they both work as good or better than my DA Aqua-Master regs. Not that I would know first hand, but I seem to hear this statement A LOT!As for John's statement: maybe not as bullett-proof as a Healthways, but it's a tough little sucker and not at all finicky JB
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Post by vance on Feb 12, 2017 12:59:41 GMT -8
Do a search on the web for said reg. I believe there is a German fellow who has a rebreather site, that has hotrodded the poo out of his. I noticed he took John's idea of making a deflector so that the blast from the venturi nozzles doesn't effect the main diaphragm.. He also made a tee where the OPV goes, getting rid of it and running peripheries, octo and BCD hose. The octo if it is downstream, acts as an OPV. The site is in German but you can run it through a translator. Also, since it does have a mushroom valve unique to it, can be hard to get, so when those go, just stuff a duckbill into it: that does work! JB Or this! The Scubastar has an hp port for an SPG, as well, and a tee on the lp side could incorporate a bcd hose. The Snark III is small enough to fit on the double valve to barely leave enough room for the SS single hose first stage. Healthways and USD DH regs are too big. Just one more to try out when the weather permits! Phil
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retpo
Senior Diver
Posts: 63
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Post by retpo on Feb 13, 2017 17:09:09 GMT -8
On a live aboard in Truk, I met a guy who started diving with a Snark III when he was a kid. He told me that he and his buddies replaced the hose assembly with US Diver's/ Aqua-Lung assemblies to get better performance. The guys name was ...........ready for this.............Mike Nelson.
Over the years my Snark III was simply the most stable as far as getting a little out of tune just waiting for Spring or their next use. The Snark always seemed to be just as good as when I last tried it. A silicone diaphragm made a big difference as did the new hoses and mouthpiece. On mine, I found that the body clamp ring seemed to needed some tweaking to get it back on with the new diaphragm, so I used a new aftermarket clamp ring for Aqua-Lung double hose. That fit perfectly.
I do have a repair manual, of sorts with parts blow up. Will look for my Nemrod catalog because I remember the catalog stating a depth limit for the regulator. It might have been something like 60 meters, but will find the catalog and let you know.
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retpo
Senior Diver
Posts: 63
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Post by retpo on Feb 13, 2017 18:38:07 GMT -8
Found my 1998 Nemrod catalog, the catalog says the Snark III is not recommended to use past 25 meters, 82' They show a WOB graph and the WOB at 40 meters is 2.30. So they say you should not go below 25 meters but they tested it at 40 meters. On the WOB graph it shows most of the breathing effort to be on the exhaust side of the loop.
Tom
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