Old Blakes seacock removal

bumblefish

bumblefish

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OK, next problem, the Blakes is jammed open, tried freeing it and have been advised to remove to workskop and then possibly replace! So got all the nuts and bolts out, but can not shift the through hull. Any advice???
 
Penetrating oil, careful use of a blow torch. Then get under the hull and hammer the cone out with the aid of a cut-off broomstick.
 
I feel for you. Had a go at getting mine out of a 20 yr old Westerly. I could not budge them at all. Finally had to get outside engineer to do the job, They are firmly glued/glassed to the hull and an internal pad. Finally removed with saws, hydraulic jacks angle grinders, goodness only knows what he used. New ones cost vastly less than the cost of removing old ones. Wish I had left well alone and just freed up the cones!
 
I've done this on mine as the previous owner had left them all permanently open. I used a metal drift and a large lump hammer from underneath the boat. Don't pussy foot around, a couple of good smart blows from the hammer and they should be out.

Some emery paper, grinding paste and Blakes seacock grease and they're still giving good service 4 seasons later.
 
Muchy has it perfectly right......... get the chunkiest piece of metal that will fit right up into the cone part of the seacock and give it the most almighty whack with a lump hammer.

Lap the two parts in with some valve grinding paste.......... don't polish to a mirror finish as some advocate as this just encourages all the grease to be squeezed out when the bolts are tightened. Oh, and don't overtighten the bolts either, mine can literally be turned on and off with one finger and don't pass a drop of water even though they had been seized solid for over two years before I maintained them. The grease is meant to be the seal which is why I don't overtighten and I use a Teflon based waterproof grease which is meant for bicycle chains!...... useful for many other things on the boat.
 
Yep mine too appeared seized open, I didn't use a blow torch but a heat gun and broomstick, it worked treat once I got abig enough hammer. After re-grinding with grinding paste from a car shop they work perfectly. They can be turned with one finger and don't leak a drop. definitey worth perservering with !
 
I used a thin blade to break the sealant under the flange, and then made a hole saw out of some steel tube to cut the sealant round the tube bit where it went through the hull.

Wasnt too difficult in the end.
 
I used a chisel to half split the (wood or plywood) backing and then a short jemmy to attempt to completely split the backing.
After that (x hours ) I used the centre bit (i was replacing the seacocks!) as a drift from the outside and a nice heavy lumphammer.

The only bit of advice I would recommend is to be patient!! (easier said than done ;-)

Simon
 
the way I get them out is to take (very carefully!!) an angle grinder to the outside round fitting. Cut a minimum of 4 lines into it from the centre hole to outside being careful not to touch the grp. The take a cold chisel and give the ends a tap inwards and you will find it bends in and breaks off easily. Same with the rest and you are left with just the centre core of the skin fitting which you can then tap in...

I then renew the entire fitting - takes about quarter of an hour.

Michael
 
After taking off all the nuts from the backing plate and the cone plate, I bashed it once with a hammer and the cone is out! Now I have to get some new bolts for the plate as I had to take two of the heads off! Thanks for all the help.
 
Update! After the cone came out I cleaned it up to discover loads of pitting in one area, matched by an area on the body of the seacock. So I took the plunge and bashed the body of the through hull with a lump hammer, out it came with a solid GRP backing plate and lots of filler. Hopefully about to be cleaned up and replaced with a new one, with the old backing plate once I have cleaned it. Why? Because the fitting bolts cost about £10.00 each and to fit a ball valve would involve filling 4 'new' holes, so I thought, sod it, stick a blakes back in with the new grease nipple and look after it! Am I right or just, as a friend told me tonight, unable to comply with conventional rules?
 
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