Brass thingy

[Tacker]

What's this for?
It screws into the back of a best fittings bottle valve.
Forgot to replace it after adjusting the pip.
Is it required?
Did ring best fittings technical (twice) but they didn't return my call(s).

[KevG]

not sure why it's there,I never refit them,doesn't make any difference.maybe a bit of a choker.
kevG

[Squinty]

I think it's a hangover from copying the original BSA valves,they were heavily choked and the earliest ones had a bronze filter.

OE Theoben valves didn't need to have a second plug to reduce flow.

Perhaps if anything the the Best Fittings spring and seat should be replaced with a longer and softer spring.
That would stop some of the issues where the short spring bottoms out and the seat needs to be backed off.

early 2 piece BSA pip on right
high flow AWT copy made for me by Kevon left 👍

[angrybear]

Could be to slow the filling speed ? same as the MDE jubilee cylinder valves have an internal restrictor.

[Squinty]

Quite possibly, but I'd lean towards it being throwback to either John Bowkett's over-design of the Superten maybe to reduce the direct airflow on the reg.
Or more of BSAs belt and braces safety requirements.

I was informed that the early brass BSA valves with two piece pips were made that way for safety if the pip failed or the 1/4BSP was inadvertently snapped off it wouldn't dump the air.

Either way unnecessary for Rapids and obviously a questionable addition by BF.