Novatac's sloppy o-ring

Just received my 120P from a fellow CPFer and he'd mentioned the tailcap was a bit stiff -- having investigated why, it seems the o-ring is a bit sloppy and when tightening or loosening the tailcap it squeezes the ring out of its seating so it gets all twisted up in the thread. Is this a "design" inherent to Novatacs or will a new o-ring potentially solve it?

I had the same problem when I got my Novatac 120P a few months ago. Just call Jesse at Novatac, he sent me two o-rings in the mail. Great customer service.

No, that is not common at all!! I play hell getting the clip off of mine!!
Get some new o-rings.

:wave:

This has happened to me too.

HoopleHead said:

:wave:

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It's possible the lube used on the o-ring causes it to swell or to shrink.

I gave up on fancy lube on my o-rings and just use plain old vasoline because the manual for my HDS recommends it. Since it's not silicon it's not gonna get damaged.

tebore said:

It's possible the lube used on the o-ring causes it to swell or to shrink.

I gave up on fancy lube on my o-rings and just use plain old vasoline because the manual for my HDS recommends it. Since it's not silicon it's not gonna get damaged.

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I thought it was the other way around, silicone doesn't damage o-ring but petroleum does?

I use dielectrical (silicone) grease on all my o rings without problem.

jzmtl said:

I thought it was the other way around, silicone doesn't damage o-ring but petroleum does?

I use dielectrical (silicone) grease on all my o rings without problem.

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It depends on the o-ring. I believe silicone o-rings are damaged by petroleum. Certain rubbers like Buna-N (I believe) are fine with petroleum. I don't really remember. There was a thread about it. But so far I'm ok with petroleum and if they fail I have some spares.

I used to use silicone on my o-rings but it caused some swelling.

I think most o-rings are made with buna-n nitril rubber now anyway. Novatac says they use it in the user's manual, also is the cheap set I bought from princess auto.

jzmtl said:

I think most o-rings are made with buna-n nitril rubber now anyway. Novatac says they use it in the user's manual, also is the cheap set I bought from princess auto.

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I've also been using Vasoline on my mags for years and it's fine. I know there have been times such as with rubber hoses designed for water based stuff that was coated with vasoline to prevent drying get totally eaten away. I think it was a rad hose.

I use the teflon lube from my bike gear... not sure if it's synthetic but I think so.

But IME vaseline does tend to eat away rubber... it takes years to show any effect but some of my really old mags that I vaselined up once upon a time have very brittle o-rings now and when I wipe the o-rings all this black goo comes off.

But back to subject in hand... I'll contact Novatac and get some new o-rings. Thanks for the input y'all.