I recently bought an '83 Cremina on eBay...although prices were high, the one I won was actually pretty reasonably priced and on the lower end of where prices have been in the last few months. I was very pleased that when I got the machine, it appeared to be in excellent shape...no bad wear on the grouphead, little to no scale, no scratches on the cover, etc. The only thing that looked less than great was the dispersion screen. When pulling water through the grouphead, I noticed that the water would shoot out sideways in addition to coming through the screen. Taking out the dispersion screen I noticed it looked like it had been reshaped sometime in the past. There seem to be largish gaps on the side of the screen where water is coming out. I am wondering if:

- this is normal?
- this will negatively affect my shots? (have not pulled enough through to get a good sense of how the shots are turning out)
- there is any way to repair this part, or if I should order a replacement screen from OE?

That looks exactly like mine. I would probably say don't worry about it. It's not damaged. This is probably the 3rd/4th(the others being from ebay, hopefully not yours ) one I've seen from ~83' that looks like that(including mine). It might cause side spraying through the sides when you flush hot water without pf. But when you put the pf/basket in for pulling shot, there's no observable effect. At least on mine.

Thanks for the reply...yes I have been following your thread and the shape of my screen reminded me of that. Does this mean I can look forward to dents in my puck when I replace the seals?

Hahaha. Maybe? Maybe not? The cause for the high-pressure water spray isn't identified yet. But being similar year and build and the screen..hmm..I tend to think that there is a high chance of that happening.

But most likely the seal doesn't need replacing at all. My gaskets were all in surprisingly good condition. They're not the most flexible thing as compared to the new seals made from Viton, but I suspect that's due to the nature of different materials(Viton being more flexible than EPDM rubber). The old piston seals I have now should probably last me another 10 years *I think*. I only ordered the whole rebuild set just because I thought the machine could use a complete rebuild after so many years. But apparently all the sight seals, pf seals, piston seals, piston rod cup seals, steam valve were all pretty flexible. I changed them out anyway(except piston) so that they could last another 30 years. Hahaha. It was good experience knowing your machine inside out too.