petrol (gas) deck fitting seized up!

ChasB

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Totally siezed up. I've put some PlusGas on (penetrating oil) and left it. Any other ideas? petrol deck fitting.jpg

Maybe time for a new one, but for now...
 
ChasB
A while back you asked

06-07-19 I know, another dumb question. Obviously Carver will sell me one, and with a nice price tag.
But going cheap - is this simply a generic petrol key? If not, what size should I be looking for? Is...


Surely you'd have the key by now? Why don't you use that? Surely you have filled the tank since then?
 
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No coopec, I haven't filled the tank since, and I am using the appropriate key - which is bending!

p.s I have two tanks. The other thread posted today relates to my probs with the other tank.
 
A couple of things you could try:

Build a dam around the flange with plasticine and pour in a little diesel to make a puddle, then wait a couple of days - it's an excellent releasing fluid.

Make a ring of plasticine the same size as the outside of the bit you are trying to free. Pour on plenty of boiling water, pop the ring on and fill it with ice cubes. As soon as it has cooled in the middle, have another go at turning it. A temperature difference should give you different expansion of the two parts.
 
Have one like that on our holding tank. Same design, different label. Also was seized up real good. Soaked it with Fast Release Spray from WD-40 for a few days, then found a piece of 4mm flat bar that needed only minor filing to fit snugly in the slot. Two big adjustable spanners on that and a piece of timber across the top. Then leaning over the thing, pushing the timber and flat bar down with my chest while turning both spanners with full force. A few attempts and it started to turn. Now with new o-ring and silicone grease on it, turns much easier.

The flimsy stamped metal keys you get for these are a joke and bend like wax. I unbent mine and returned it for a refund :-P

If you need a new one, don't buy it from Carver, it's a generic marine part, plenty available on the Internet. You'll get ripped off slightly less that way.
 
Find a long flat head screw driver that fits in the recess lay the screw driver horizontal in recess to get purchase to turn tap screw driver with hammer if required to get it going. Grease before refitting.
 
IF you could make an " adapter" to fit the fuel cap maybe you could use a (borrowed) rattle gun?

What is a rattle gun used for?
Why any grease monkey needs an impact wrenches in his toolbox: they make removing lug nuts a quick and easy task. Impact wrenches are found in the tool chests of mechanics everywhere. They're commonly used for loosening lug nuts from cars and trucks, but they can also be used in any high-torque situation.

Impact wrench
Tool School: The Lug Loosening Impact Wrench
They're commonly used for loosening lug nuts from cars and trucks, but they can also be used in any high-torque situation. ... Impact wrenches get their immense torque from a hammering mechanism in the tool that delivers strong concussive blows extremely quickly.
 
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Have one like that on our holding tank. Same design, different label. Also was seized up real good. Soaked it with Fast Release Spray from WD-40 for a few days, then found a piece of 4mm flat bar that needed only minor filing to fit snugly in the slot. Two big adjustable spanners on that and a piece of timber across the top. Then leaning over the thing, pushing the timber and flat bar down with my chest while turning both spanners with full force. A few attempts and it started to turn. Now with new o-ring and silicone grease on it, turns much easier.

The flimsy stamped metal keys you get for these are a joke and bend like wax. I unbent mine and returned it for a refund :-P

If you need a new one, don't buy it from Carver, it's a generic marine part, plenty available on the Internet. You'll get ripped off slightly less that way.

Mine is also home made but the plate I used was long enough for me to bend one end around 2 cm long and the rest as a handle, something like 15 cm. The plate happened to be in 254 SMO, a superalloy that will be the last component of the boat to corrode away.
 
I have a similar one for diesel, which seized up every winter and had to be unseized every summer by the good people at Crinan Boats when I refuelled on my way out west. Last year they made me a copy of their tool, which is just a length of steel strip (about 30mm x 6mm in my case) with a foot of 10mm bar welded across the end. It works beautifully.

I also found it worthwhile to do some meticulous cleaning of both threads with a miniature wire brush and then liberally applying vaseline.
 
I had a similar problem with a holding-tank pump-out which we had scarcely used. PlusGas didn't free it, but I put loads more on and left it for a week, when it came off readily.
 
Crudest but possibly simplest tool solution might be a couple of nails through a length of wood. Suitable sized round nails perhaps with the points files down after knocking through the wood, will engage with the holes ate either end of the slot. If it's a reasonable length of wood to give ample leverage and you also get someone to stand over the nails when they are fitted to the cap. Then I suspect you will get reasonable force to get the cap moving.
A good cleanup after you have got it off and some copperslip on the threads for next time.
 
A good cleanup after you have got it off and some copperslip on the threads for next time.

Personally, I would be wary of using copper grease in this application. Some of it will probably end up in the tank and I'm not sure whether it will be stopped by the filters or end up in the injection pump/injectors. Silicone grease would be the usual lubricant/anti-seize.

Richard
 
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