The cam plate at the bottom of the gear assembly has to be removed from gear assembly and slid down the shaft first, then lift the flaps to allow cam plate to seat and have the flap pins on top of plate so when cam plate is turned it will lift flaps one by one as it goes around, after your sure cam plate is positioned correctly, then lower gear assembly down shaft, right after the shaft pokes through top hole of gear kit make sure you install the little washers that sit on top of plastic, by placing them over the shaft before you seat the gears, the little washers cannot be installed on shaft if gears are fully seated in valve and pressed back onto cam plate. the little washers separate the impeller from the gear assembly (impeller goes over shaft last before replacing valve lid)
the cam plate can be wiggled free from gear assembly, and will have to be lined up with gear assembly when placing gear assembly in valve you will feel the gears line up with cam plate and then press down until it presses back onto cam plate
Either you dont have the pins on flaps over top of cam plate, or the gears are not lined up with cam plate that presses back onto gears, or the valve lid, if you look has a raised inch long bump that fits into a recessed slot on valve body for speed control, that has to be lined up also, if the raised part on the lid is not oriented to sit in the slot on the valve it will also create a gap that does not allow the lid to seat properly, which has led to the eventual justification to try and put the clamp on to press it all together, which results in the lip on the valve to crack and separate, which results in having to replace the entire valve or the valve body which is not cheap.
The pins that have separated from the flaps, will result in the flaps just laying on the bottom of the hole it covers, the pins are what the cam plate uses to lift the flap to allow water to enter the port, so yes your spike in pressure is caused by flaps that have missing pins.
