Did just the flapper fly off or did the valve arm (metal part) break?

The wire broke. It's my second time to have that happen. I've never had the screws come loose yet.
I really hate it when that happens :-))

Are they round or flat? The only reason I ask is because I've seen more broken flapper arms with the older round ones than the newer flat or rectangular looking arms.

John

If it was one that I build I would fix it free

What brand is the accordion?

It was one of Larry's with the round wires. My other one(that broke) was one of Larry's too.
I have to admit that the Bon Cajuns have served me well. Over the years it seems that I get some leakage and have to occasionally give the flapper a little tweak to cover all the 4 holes without leaking and sounding out when they are supposed to be sealed. I guess they get metal fatigue and finally break.
The good news....I talked to Larry and shipped it out today(Monday) and he'll jump on it.
Yee Ha!!! I love my A box.

Good deal, glad you got it resolved.

Unless you banged it against something REAL hard, how in the heck could this happen? You're playing, and they've fallen off, twice?!?

All I can say is that I'm glad I've made the purchase decisions I have over the years.

Yeah Jim....but two different accordions. They do go to gigs, but not bumped severely. Occasionally I do have to slightly tweak a flapper if it doesn't lay flat and leaks out of one of the four holes. That does contribute to metal fatique. I guess I just play the hell out of them. ;-)

From my experience it seems that accordions with alum. wire flapper arms are somewhat more prone to that kind of damage than those with arms made of copper wire.

John you're absolutely right. Alluminum flappers don't hold up as good as copper. They're hard as hell to reset, and break when even slightly being bent to fix flapper leaks.

I have found that #8 bare copper ground wire works best. Seems to be plenty stiff enough. But, you can't mash the end where the screws go too thin or you create a weak point.

This has happened to me 3 times.

The most recent occurrence, the wire broke in half right at the screw hole. This is obviously a point of weakness.

On the advice of Dana, I fixed it myself with some super strong West Systems epoxy. I played one gig on it so far and it has held up.