poppets

i took 3 ball lock corny kegs apart and tossed all of the parts into a bucket.  i am trying to match poppets to posts. no matter which way I try, the poppets will not “stick” in the posts. Is this a normal thing?i can check to see if they are sealing but is the fact that they are not stuck in the post a sign that the seal is bad or will eventually fail? thanks!

Without seeing what’s going on… Make certain you’re inserting the “poppets” from the inside of the post and make certain your “poppets” have the tiny o-rings on them. Also check to see if your putting them in upside down. There’s really nothing more to it unless you have 6 different types of ball locks with 6 different types of poppets. Then it becomes a statistics problem.

THANKS!
they are not upside down or put in wrong but i do in fact own 2 keg types.  2 are corenelius and 1 is a challenger VI.  i got it sorted but that damn challenger through me for a loop.  it has different thread sizes.  i have, for the past 15 years cleaned one keg type at a time and never crossed posts and poppets. i just got a crash course in keg types and their parts. i usually toss the parts in a hop bag and throw them in the soaking keg. gotta keep that habit.  i did not know what I was avoiding.

I had problems with some old poppets sticking inside the posts. Had to pull them out with needle nose plyers because the tail part was bent out. I bought some universal poppets with just spring on the bottom no feet and they have worked fine. I don’t think the poppets are supposed to stick inside the posts.

I have 14 kegs.  Very few of the poppets actually stick in the posts.  If I try to push them up inside they just pop right back out.  For the most part they just kind of float inside while I tighten the posts.  It’s never been a problem for me (yet).

Paul

There are slight visual differences between the poppets. If you’ve already matched the posts to the kegs you ought to be able to figure out the poppets.

I made the same mistake when I first started kegging. What a pain.

Universal poppets are a nice solution.

Probably too late to help, but - you might want to compare your poppets to these via photos, to match the correct post and keg:

https://www.homebrewing.org/search.html?k=poppets

And this might help you identify which post belongs to which keg:

When I wash multiple kegs I put a piece of tape with a number on it on the keg, and the same number on a large cottage cheese tub, and put the keg posts, poppits, gas stem into a tub that matches the keg.  When all is clean, rinsed and sanitized I know which hardware belongs to which keg.

never too late to help.  I am going to save this link for sure.  Here is the update. I got the kegs all sorted out. It took a while to realize that my kegs had the wrong posts on them. That was the way they came. it wouldn’t have been a huge deal if I hadn’t mixed them up. 
anyway, I ended up with some universals on the last keg that wouldn’t hold pressure only to find that there was a pinhole leak in my post under the gasket. I don’t know how that would happen but it did.  My LHBS had 2 universals and matched them up for me because, apparently, they vary in spring length.

AND, I ended up buying a pressure gauge that I fitted onto a connector to stick on my kegs.  That way I can tell if my keg was losing pressure slowly.  and it was.  less than 3 psi a day.  more than acceptable but hard to detect. for me anyway.