Had a LM GS3 with the steam lever and it worked great, silky smooth. A year and a half ago I sold my GS3 and down sized to a new Salvatore semi auto. I wasn't going to get one with steam and hot water levers, but they had a new one in stock for a good deal so that's what I got. The steam lever was very smooth for a few months, but it get progressively rough while engaging. I took the lever assembly apart, cleaned it and re-lubed with a good grade silicone from Chris Coffee that I had used on my GS3. Improved for a while, but got progressively rough when engaging it. My dad bought the same machine around the time I did, and he is having the same problem. Salvatore not sure what the problem is. Any ideas?
Rob

Do you have pictures of this valve together and apart, maybe someone can see something in the design. I have solenoids driving my valves on the Salvatore I have so I haven't seen this lever.

Which machine exactly do you have? I have their compact spring lever and i had the exact same problem on my steam wand. I clean the valve few times, tried with or without lubrication, it just never worked correctly. I finally decided to remove one small piece that i had no idea what was his exact role, probably just for a slightly better esthetic look if you look carefully and closely at the center of the lever arm. Or it help to simply speed up the recovery position of the lever to the center but the spring will do just 2-3 sec later so no need for that. But anyway, i removed it and now it works absolutely perfectly every single time since two months!

Here is the valve ass'y:


And here is the part that i removed:

It's just their semi-auto. Seb, I know which piece that is. I will take it out and see how it goes! Thanks!
Rob

Will the lever still lock on with that piece removed?

Lock in place 100% of time! Before, sometimes it was not always holding his place but now all is fixed

I took the piece out. The steam lever is smooth, but it doesn't engage the steam. Back to the drawing board.
Rob

very strange, the lever arm push simply on the pin and there is the spring that is compress at this time that will later bring the lever to it's home position. What hold the lever valve open is the small hole in the middle of the pin, the ball end of the lever arm will lock in place when it is on it's side position, in my case the part that i removed was blocking the full movement of the lever arm so it was not able to lock sometimes. So there seem to be something wrong with your parts, and i don't believe it is different. Are you sure all pieces are installed in the right position? Double or triple check, be sure to look carefully and understand how it work so you will be able to fix/mod it.