nlawley
New member
How do you service your stopcocks? Do you have to dismantle them?
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Sevicing stopcocks
- Thread starter nlawley
- Start date
Evadne
Active member
Yes. Unbolt the top plate and use a long drift to tap out the cone from the outside, if necessary. Clean and regrease, Blakes' seacock grease is expensive but I find it superior to the stuff you get from Halfords. Reassemble and gradually tighten teh top plate. Useful tips here /url]
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sailorman
Well-known member
wot type r they??.
<hr width=100% size=1>Mines a Crocodile sandwich & make it Snappy
<hr width=100% size=1>Mines a Crocodile sandwich & make it Snappy
Talbot
Active member
rather than pull them apart, I squirt some grease from a spray can (Wurth HHS2000) this puts a nice coat of grease into the right place with no real effort. Existing seacocks are now 10 years old so reckon it works.
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Stemar
Well-known member
Clickable link <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.blakes-lavac-taylors.co.uk/faqs4.htm>here</A>
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Katouf
New member
Not a straightforward answer to this.
If they are the cone type - see Stemar's post - you probably won't have a problem but if you've got the gate valve type with a steel hand wheel, the chance of getting them apart if they haven't been touched is rather remote. Be prepared for skinned knuckles, possible broken sea cocks and have a good stock of swear words ready for instant use.
Take care not to stress the skin fitting when trying to dismantle; two pairs of hands are sometimes better than one if you can get all of them into confined spaces; be VERY careful with heat application - use a hot air gun on the metal but don't melt the grp!
A prayer is also sometimes useful.
Might be worth taking the pipe off from the seacock outlet and looking at the (usually) brass spigot that screws into the body. If it's a pinkish colour, your prayer will definitely need answering as it would prove that dezincification is taking place (brass = copper+zinc. Takeaway the zinc by electrolysis and you're left with soft brittle copper). If you do find this situation, you will definitely need to strip the seacock to see the inside. Bronze should be OK but if you look at previous posts there was one with a report of a fishing boat from Brighton that nearly sank. The report shows pictures of the bronze seacock eaten away in two years. Very worrying
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If they are the cone type - see Stemar's post - you probably won't have a problem but if you've got the gate valve type with a steel hand wheel, the chance of getting them apart if they haven't been touched is rather remote. Be prepared for skinned knuckles, possible broken sea cocks and have a good stock of swear words ready for instant use.
Take care not to stress the skin fitting when trying to dismantle; two pairs of hands are sometimes better than one if you can get all of them into confined spaces; be VERY careful with heat application - use a hot air gun on the metal but don't melt the grp!
A prayer is also sometimes useful.
Might be worth taking the pipe off from the seacock outlet and looking at the (usually) brass spigot that screws into the body. If it's a pinkish colour, your prayer will definitely need answering as it would prove that dezincification is taking place (brass = copper+zinc. Takeaway the zinc by electrolysis and you're left with soft brittle copper). If you do find this situation, you will definitely need to strip the seacock to see the inside. Bronze should be OK but if you look at previous posts there was one with a report of a fishing boat from Brighton that nearly sank. The report shows pictures of the bronze seacock eaten away in two years. Very worrying
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AndrewB
Well-known member
The straightforward answer is that if you can't get a gate valve apart, it DOES need replacing. Another yacht nearly lost at Dover marina a month ago due to one failing. Don't count on them for more than 3 years, though sometimes they do last a lot longer.
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cliff
Active member
"soft brittle copper"???
Dezincafication of brass leaves a porous copper "sponge" which is not brittle but it is weak as hell.
Metals cannot be both soft and brittle at the same time.
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Dezincafication of brass leaves a porous copper "sponge" which is not brittle but it is weak as hell.
Metals cannot be both soft and brittle at the same time.
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