Repairing bronze, tapered cone seacocks

[rpjn59]

Winner, winner. Chicken dinner, thats it , Spartan.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Yeah, you don't want that leak! All of mine have been W/C or Asian made. Real long tapers, probably 3-4" long, so a pit or two etc isn't a problem. How long is the mating surface on a Spartan?
Well I just Googled to see. Boy there are several threads about "dripping Spartan seacock" In the pics the plug looks very hollow... I wonder if they go out of round a lot? That could cause a problem. Are you able to measure the roundness with a caliper or micrometer?

Sorry for the slow reply. Been distracted lately. Spent the weekend working on the boat and got the engine fired up after sitting for almost seven years. Getting close to being a boater again.

I haven't had time to look further at the seacock but I have a spare that I picked up used. When I get time think I will plug the through hull (maybe use the toilet plunger trick), and pull it apart to see what I can see.

[geoleo]

Just replace it with a Marelon one!

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by geoleo

Just replace it with a Marelon one!

Thanks for the advice but I'll stick with bronze.

[phorvati]

If you are out of the water, how would you go about testing for leaks?

I plan to lap all of them and it would be nice to know if lapping worked before launch. I also cant tell if they ever leaked but they do look very old. Many of mine are seized. Since they are original, and PO was pretty much an idiot (everything he touched, he made worse) I have no reason to believe that these were ever serviced. The one I took out looks like could use lapping.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by phorvati

If you are out of the water, how would you go about testing for leaks?

I plan to lap all of them and it would be nice to know if lapping worked before launch. I also cant tell if they ever leaked but they do look very old. Many of mine are seized. Since they are original, and PO was pretty much an idiot (everything he touched, he made worse) I have no reason to believe that these were ever serviced. The one I took out looks like could use lapping.

Pretty hard I suppose. FWIW, I've never had one leak. Never "lapped" either. Cleaned them up well with solvent, then some 400 wet sandpaper. Cleaned and used lanolin for lube. Not a drop. Some of mine had obvious non mating spots on the taper too.

[TreblePlink]

Originally Posted by phorvati

If you are out of the water, how would you go about testing for leaks?

I plan to lap all of them and it would be nice to know if lapping worked before launch. I also cant tell if they ever leaked but they do look very old. Many of mine are seized...

I just did one of mine and I had to used a three-jaw gear puller to get the inside cone out.

Cleaned, lapped, lapped some more. Cleaned, greased, Reinstalled.

Usually the lapping compound will show the areas in contact and the voids. When mine was done, the distribution of the compound was very uniform, indicating success. I used waterproof grease to reassemble.

[rpjn59]

The way I tested mine was to reassemble valves, reattach the hoses on the inside and fill them with water. Assumption being that if the water does not leak out then it shouldnt leak inward when the hulls submerged. Of course that only pertains only to the valve accuation and not the bedding/mounting, I did have to tighten up the cone to stop a drip on one of them, never leaked again in seven years.

[Viking Sailor]

If another valve of the same size - you could try swapping the cones between the two valves. It could be worth a shot...

[phorvati]

So my handle is cast into the valve. It is not removable. This is probably not spartan or Wilcox Crittenden. So i cannot rotate the valve 360 degrees without removing the body. Perhaps the original spartan directions for lapping by going back and forth is the only way to go without removing the body and breaking apart the through-hull seal. Any other ideas?

[TreblePlink]

Originally Posted by phorvati

So my handle is cast into the valve. It is not removable. This is probably not spartan or Wilcox Crittenden. So i cannot rotate the valve 360 degrees without removing the body. Perhaps the original spartan directions for lapping by going back and forth is the only way to go without removing the body and breaking apart the through-hull seal. Any other ideas?

A photo would help.

[phorvati]

Here, one is out and one is not

[TreblePlink]

If you're leaving it installed, looks like 180 degrees is all you have. I think you can still lap it with that much movement, but you may have to be a bit more persistent, cleaning the cone and re-applying compound.