I have one of these:
in my boat, and while waiting for the new exhaust gasket to come in, I started pulling out the old one, which necessitates pulling the muffler.
In the process I slipped and managed to unhook the spring on the valve above. Out popped the spring and a metal ring.
It is pretty obvious that the spring goes back on top of the valve under the red adjuster, but what is the metal ring for? It seems to be about the size of the valve inside (2 inch diameter or so), but it is a split ring so it won't stay on the valve, it just falls underneath.
Any ideas? I checked the manual and it didn't even mention the valve, only showed the hole where it pushes in.

in my boat, and while waiting for the new exhaust gasket to come in, I started pulling out the old one, which necessitates pulling the muffler.
In the process I slipped and managed to unhook the spring on the valve above. Out popped the spring and a metal ring.
It is pretty obvious that the spring goes back on top of the valve under the red adjuster, but what is the metal ring for? It seems to be about the size of the valve inside (2 inch diameter or so), but it is a split ring so it won't stay on the valve, it just falls underneath.
Any ideas? I checked the manual and it didn't even mention the valve, only showed the hole where it pushes in.