Patent ID: 8500420

Claim:
A suction valve which comprises: a valve seat having flow passages therethrough, a valve guard having outlet passages therethrough, a valve element movably positioned between said valve seat and said valve guard and capable of opening or closing the flow passages in the valve seat, spring means between the valve guard and the valve element to bias said valve element towards said valve seat, a one-piece unloader located on a side of said valve seat opposite said valve element, said unloader consisting of a plurality of fingers which extend through some of said flow passages of said valve seat to contact said valve element, and a central section having an out-of-round inner wall defining an axial opening therein, an inner sleeve which extends from said valve seat through said axial opening of said unloader, a separate, generally cylindrical lock sleeve which surrounds said inner sleeve and which is non-rotatably connected to said valve seat and extends into said central opening of said unloader, said lock sleeve having an out-of-round outer contour which interlocks with the out-of-round inner wall of the central section of the unloader to prevent relative rotation therebetween and prevent said fingers of said unloader from contacting walls of said valve seat forming said flow passages through which said fingers extend, a central connecting bolt which extends from a first end attached to said valve guard though said valve element, said valve seat, said inner sleeve, and said unloader to an exposed second end, and a nut attached to said second end of said bolt to hold said unloader on said inner sleeve.