A Story About That Washer - My favorite Twin 38s have always had a good functioning J-Valve until last winter when the manifold started leaking on the J-Valve side. Well, when I opened it up, I found the seat had 3-4 washers and the spring was busted in the middle. The leak was due to something else and apparently the J-valve worked fine in this broken spring with too many washers condition.
I took a new spring off one of my newer manifolds, put it together with one washer and re-assembled with a new J-valve seat. WOW. That J-Valve now works really great. It must be better than before but I was wondering: Did putting in too many washers make the old spring break? Or, was the old spring weak and the too many washers were used to make the J-valve work better?