Chassis heat problems

[Don Bradner]

The valve(s) are very rigidly attached, and the stress is guaranteed to be far
less than the lateral force needed to break those old fittings free! I had a few
nightmares thinking about the creek I would be up if the nipple between the
valve and the block were to break, but fortunately all of that old steel is
holding up quite well!

Don Bradner
90 PT40 "Blue Thunder"
Eureka, CA

On 3/22/2008 at 4:52 AM Gregory OConnor wrote:

>Don, the only prob with a ball valve is stress on the pipes that
>hold the valve inplace when making the quarter turn to open or
>close. if the pipe is not rigid, a mount may help. you got to
>wonder; of what value is it to have an inline valve that will end
>up failing prior to any need for its use??
>
>GregoryO'Connor
>94ptRomolandCa
>
> --- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "Don Bradner"
> wrote:
>>
>> Back for more. Over the past two days I pulled the two gate valves
>that I show in the image at
>> http://www.arcatapet.net/image/heaterplumbing.jpg
>>
>> Both looked and operated fine, but I agree a ball valve is much
>better, so I replaced them. Not a fun job getting things out, as
>there isn't much room to wrench. Had to drop the air conditioning
>pump down to have room to turn the right-hand one.
>>
>> As I was installing the left ball valve, I happened to notice that
>there was another valve below the water pump - black with grease,
>and hard to see - even harder to get to. It wasn't until I came back
>to your post, Shane, to make this post that I happened to read new
>meaning into the "I've replaced 2 of the 4 valves with ball valves."
>I assumed you meant 2 gates, 1 Sporlan, 1 Bosch, which is what I
>knew I had; now I'm thinking you meant 4 gate valves. Am I missing a
>4th gate valve somewhere?
>>
>> Anyway, I reached down and spun the handle, and spun the handle
>some more. No stops, either direction. Sigh. I don't think I could
>get that valve out without removing the water pump, which I really
>don't want to tackle.
>>
>> So, what I did was to unscrew the top of the valve (a difficult
>thing in its own right), and replace the handle/stem/gate with the
>best of the other two. You can see it here after replacement, as
>well as the handle of the left-side ball valve:
>http://www.arcatapet.net/image/thirdvalve.jpg
>>
>> A picture of the valve stems is here:
>http://www.arcatapet.net/image/erodedthreads.jpg
>>
>> On the left is the other "good" valve, and on the right is the bad
>one from below the water pump. The threads are just eroded away
>enough that the gate will slip somewhat freely on the stem.
>>
>> Unless I can find another valve to look at, tomorrow will be spent
>filtering 8 gallons of collected coolant for replacement, then
>checking for leaks, etc.
>>
>> On 3/16/2008 at 11:13 AM sfedeli3 wrote:
>>
>> >Hi Don,
>> >
>> > My guess is that one of your gate valves "dropped". Even
>though the
>> > valve handle is turning, the inner gate is not lifting. My front
>heat
>> >circuit did not work for 3 years. Tried flushing the entire loop,
>> >replacing sporlans, relays, dash switches, circulating pump and
>still
>> >no heat. Finally, removed the gate valve when I pulled the water
>pump
>> >to replace it and saw that the gate was in the down position. The
>> >inner threads had eroded and when you rotated the handle, nothing
>> >would happen to the gate. I've replaced 2 of the 4 valves with
>ball
>> >valves.
>> >
>> >Shane Fedeli
>> >85PT40
>> >Hershey, PA
>>
>
>
>
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