Looking at how this valve operates, there are only a few things that would make it stay closed when it should be open.
The PI valves uses inlet pressure to force the piston closed for defrost, or also to throttle the valve closed in order to maintain a consistent evaporator pressure. As such, there has to be a path to vent the pressure out of the piston chamber to allow the piston to open.
If the vent path is restricted, it will not allow the higher pressure in the piston chamber to bleed off, and this will keep the valve closed. In the old style valve (without the external pilot tube) the bleed was in the valve piston. In the new style valve, the bleed is through the open pathway in the pilot valve when de-energized, and then through an orifice in outlet fitting connecting to the pilot tube. You can remove the 1/4" flare on the pilot tube and make sure that small orifice is not plugged.
If the pilot valve which allows the inlet pressure to pressurize the piston chamber doesn't seal correctly (trash, etc) it will supply a constant flow of refrigerant at the inlet pressure to the piston chamber...preventing it from opening.
When this valve is de-energized it opens the pilot valve, creating a pathway for the inlet pressure to pressurize the piston chamber....closing the main valve piston. If for some reason somebody got a little over zealous in their attempt to eliminate rack leaks, and over torqued the pilot valve enclosing tube nut, it will deform the chamber that the plunger is supposed to travel in when the coil is energized. In fact, it will prevent it from moving at all when the valve is energized, keeping the pilot valve in the closed position. This should be between 10 - 12 ft-lbs of torque....not very tight at all.
And there's always the possibility that the clearance between the valve bore and the main piston is contaminted with debris or sludge preventing the piston from freely moving.
If you've got a new style piston (no bleed) with an old style pilot (no external bleed) you've got a major problem. Hard to see how this could happen since you cannot buy either part separate.