Chassis heat problems

[Don Bradner]

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