Pressure difference between Bleed Valve vs Solenoid

Hello,

I set up my sprinklers so that I can run 3 rainbirds on one of my stations. It runs great when I turn the manual bleed valve. But, if I run the automatic sprinkler/solenoid valve, then I only have enough pressure to run 2 rainbirds... and they seem to be a little low pressure. What's the deal? Why do I get so much lower pressure on the automatic system?

They are new solenoids, new controller... but they are manual to automatic conversions.

Any ideas?

Based on the fact that you say the valve opens fully when you manually open the valve, it appears to me that for some reason the solinoid plunger may not be coming up all the way when it is electrically actuated to allow the water to exit the upper chamber at the proper rate. I'm not sure what you did to convert your valves as you say. Do you have the correct solinoid? and if you have other zones do they operate properly? Maybe you just have a stuck solinoid. Try another one, or switch with another valve.

The clock can only operate so many solenoids at once. More than likely you are exceeding the output capability of the transformer.

Thanks for the responses. Here's a little more information.

I'm only operating one station at a time, but I have 2-3 rainbirds per station.

I was having the problem from the first day I moved into the property. I thought it was a bad solenoid, so I swapped that out.. no change. I thought it might be the controller, so I swapped that out. That fixed another problem, but not this one. I thought maybe there was something wrong with the cheap valve that was previously on that station, so I bought a nice brass one:
http://valuesetters.com/vendor_20_product_images/57034.jpg
Same problem.

Here's what the whole valve looks like:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBQJK4...3E84IP&tag=shopzilla_rev_1218-20&linkCode=asn

The lower part was here previously, and I've swapped everything else out except the wiring.

Have you taken the WHOLE old valve out and replaced with all NEW? Upper

I replaced everything in the first picture.