This could be the answer, I may have been too gentle on something that looked like it would break if I tightened it too much. I'll have to be more aggressive with tightening the replacement parts that Topek said they would send me and hope I don't break anything from overtightening. And hope I can get it apart again if I need to use it inflate the tires on my GFs bike that use Presta valves.

I'd be less likely to blame Topeak here if my new Topeak floor pump hadn't broken one day when I was trying to add air to my tires before I rode to work. It worked great for letting air out that day, but that's not why I bought a floor pump. It was deja vu all over again.