Chassis heat problems

[Gregory OConnor]

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
>