The walls of these cylinders must be fairly smooth. Your picture makes it look corroded. Is it? Brass and other bronze type alloys can corrode very severely in the presence of chlorides, as has mentioned in other posts, this is often called "Bronze disease." Stopping the "disease" involves getting rid of the porous corroded surfaces and the chlorides harboured by the corroded metal. Some water has unacceptably high chloride content, in my opinion.

I believe these pistons are open on top like MCALs, so water that gets past the pistons evaporates and leaves its salts behind. This implies that servicing of the group should be fairly frequent to get rid of the salts before problems develop.

If the walls be moderately rough they can be smoothed with fine sandpaper or similar abrasive. They also could be smoothed with a brake hone.

Interesting. Thanks! I gave it a good scrub with some steel wool, it now feels quite smooth to the touch. I can't explain the discolorations, but it feels like smooth brass to me.

Gasketwise, I was just about to suggest an arrangement in which I pick up some PV gaskets, try them out and If they did not fit, pass them along at cost, if there was interest. But then I spoke to a shop in San Francisco and it turns out that I don't have to buy a machine-wide set of gaskets for $75; I can get the group seals only, for $36 or so, plus shipping. So I figure I might as well do that. In the meantime, having taking it all apart and scrubbed it, if I can also get to a hardware store and find the right size cap for the plumb fitting, I may give it a drop of oil and reassemble and see what happens. Who knows, maybe I will still be able to squeak out a couple serviceable shots. That's just how eager I am to get this eagle up & flying again.

drgary wrote:....I pried off the metal tabs that hold on the glass lens....

What tool did you use for this? Perhaps your manometer is more repair-friendly. Im using a tiny 2mm-wide flathead, wedging it under by the tabs and the thin metal case of the manometer bends but won't come off. I'm just causing cosmetic damage and I'm afraid if I do get the casing off, I won't be able to get it back on. Or that I might break the glass in the process.

Sigh. I put a little piece of silicon at the end of that open cap for the water inlet; the drip slowed, but it still drips. After scrubbing out the inside of the group, dabbed a tiny bit of oil on the old gaskets and piston rod and reassembled; water still dribbles out the weep hole as it heats up, then spurts as soon as i touch the lever. The upside is that nothing leaks once its at temp (besides the inlet), but yeah, I really do need piston gaskets and a cap. Both have been ordered. Now I must wait. So much for showing off to my Thanksgiving guests! At least it will look regal on the counter, idle though it may be for now.

By the way, if anyone else has specific tips for fixing a manometer like this, please chime in! Also, I humbly inquire for a refresher on which way to turn the screw on this pressure stat for lowering the pressure... The orientation here throws me a bit, and it's already pretty high, wouldn't want to turn it the wrong way.

SpromoSapiens wrote:...dabbed a tiny bit of oil on the old gaskets and piston rod and reassembled

Mo' bettah to use Dow 111. It's food grade grease and won't wash out too fast under pressure and hot water. Also, it won't eat at the seals like normal oil will. I recently got a 150 gm. (5.3 oz) tube off eBay for $15 with free shipping.

SpromoSapiens wrote:By the way, if anyone else has specific tips for fixing a manometer like this, please chime in!

I don't know how to fix it, but I know how to get the front ring and glass off so you can get it out of the round case: Get a fairly thick (1/4" or so) hard wood or plastic piece, put it on the edge of the ring and gently start tapping around the edge. It will eventually pop off. It's just pressed on. Nothing fancy. Don't wedge anything under the ring. Just tap around the edge. You can even use a large, flat screwdriver if you do it carefully. But wood or plastic is safer.

SpromoSapiens wrote:Also, I humbly inquire for a refresher on which way to turn the screw on this pressure stat for lowering the pressure... The orientation here throws me a bit, and it's already pretty high, wouldn't want to turn it the wrong way.

Clockwise to increase pressure...counter clockwise to lessen pressure. I recently reset mine down to max out at about .85 bar. Can't really tell if it makes much difference, but now it's more in line with what my Pavoni puts out. For some reason that makes me feel better.

If you have an old drill bit the size of the pressure adjustment wheel hole, use that. The wheel is hard to turn and if you use anything like normal steel, it will bend. The drill bit won't bend...it will just break if the wheel is too hard. But it should turn with something like a drill bit and enough force...

If you can't fix the manometer you can probably find a new one from some other make espresso machine for $100 or less. The one on Sama began to leak steam slowly one day, then the leak slowly increased. Eventually I just sealed off the tube and used it without a gauge until I got a new one. YOU NEED TO BE SURE THE SAFETY VENT IS WORKING if you try that method, and that you have the boiler pressure turned down to 1 bar or so.

FWIW, I like my pressurized levers to stay under 1 bar pressure for optimum brew temps. They still produce plenty of steam pressure, but they are less prone to bitter extractions.

Dow 111 on the seals is probably better than oil, as stated.

Thanks, everyone! Another round of major help. I've got some Dow on the way along with the gaskets; the oil was just for this one-time experiment to see if all it needed was a cleaning & slickening. I intend to clean again when the new gaskets arrive.

Manometer-wise, the one on the machine now does still react to pressure; at cold / zero pressure the needle never goes lower than about 0.4, then tops out at about 2.0 before the element subsides. A steam wand manometer told me the peak pressure is actuaslly closer to 1.75, which also seems odd since if 0.4 = 0.0, then i would expect 2.0 to equal 1.6... Either way it needs to be turned way down. I keep my livietta at a max of 1.1, but i will heed the wisdom of bona fide leverheads and keep it at 1 or lower.