Just getting back into diving and getting everything serviced/fixed....I noticed that my canister light's strain relief near the cable gland had broken free... I am not familiar with how to work on canister lights or repair them. I've tried doing lots of research but am not sure I know what I'm doing... Attached is a picture of the way it should look (how it is near the light head) vs another picture with the cable gland taken off showing what is going on inside.
If someone could let me know how to fix this/what strain relief piece to buy/what I need to do to make this waterproof again that would be great.
On a different note...I bought a used manifold for my doubles and had it serviced last year when I started diving it. How often do manifolds need to be serviced? (just air not nitrox cleaned)
The strain relief does two jobs, keeps the nut from digging into the cable and keep the cable from bending to an extreme angle and eventually causing a tear and thus causing the cable to lose its watertight integrity. The relief NORMALLY does not seal the unit.
The gland you have posted is assembled so that the strain relief does nothing for the units watertight integrity. From right to left, the first part is the sealing part that's inside the metal housing of the gland, then the second item pushes against the first to push it against both the inner side wall and cable itself when the nut is properly tightened.
ryjoph89 wrote:On a different note...I bought a used manifold for my doubles and had it serviced last year when I started diving it. How often do manifolds need to be serviced? (just air not nitrox cleaned)
I used to rebuild my valves/manifolds every other year but noticed that after two years they were still pretty clean. I now rebuild them every three years. If you had your manifold rebuilt last year it should be fine.
I would normally say don't worry about the strain relief but looking at the pic of the unit fully closed I noticed that the nuts are all the way together. This suggests that the seal unit should be replaced. When snugged down there should be space between the two. As far as replacing them I am not sure how DR wires the head so it's anybodies guess if it can be user replaced. I have the gland nuts and parts but I don't know how serviceable your light is.
Dashrynn wrote:The gland you have posted is assembled so that the strain relief does nothing for the units watertight integrity. From right to left, the first part is the sealing part that's inside the metal housing of the gland, then the second item pushes against the first to push it against both the inner side wall and cable itself when the nut is properly tightened.
Thanks! That really clears up how the parts inside the nut work. I put it back together and tested in sink and it doesn't leak. I'm gonna dive it Tuesday night without the battery at depth just to check it just cuz I haven't dove it since I've undone the nut/strain relief broke. I found a couple rubber strain relief grommets that I can buy..in the meantime it will work without it.
spatman wrote:The strain relief on my can light cable broke ages ago and everything still works as it should. My take is to leave it as is until it fails.
Dashrynn wrote:The gland you have posted is assembled so that the strain relief does nothing for the units watertight integrity. From right to left, the first part is the sealing part that's inside the metal housing of the gland, then the second item pushes against the first to push it against both the inner side wall and cable itself when the nut is properly tightened.
Thanks! That really clears up how the parts inside the nut work. I put it back together and tested in sink and it doesn't leak. I'm gonna dive it Tuesday night without the battery at depth just to check it just cuz I haven't dove it since I've undone the nut/strain relief broke. I found a couple rubber strain relief grommets that I can buy..in the meantime it will work without it.
Well I was finally able to test out my light (Battery removed) on Tuesday (wasn't able to go diving for longer than expecting)... I put a small weight inside and filled the can with paper towels to check for any moisture/leaks.. Got down to 80 feet and when I checked not a single drop inside. Waterproof again!! Gonna throw the battery back in and dive it like nothing even happened. If/when the cable breaks down then I'll replace the strain relief with a generic one.
