Seacock Challenge

[Guy W. Leslie]

For the first time, I serviced a seacock (CD 28) and all went well. On my 2nd one (the raw water seacock) I could not put it back together. It would not go in far enough to properly attach the washer on the other side. Has anyone dealt with this? I even tried lapping compound with no improvement. I'm puzzled. It worked well last year and there must be some explanation. Thanks to all who may have a solution!
Guy

[David van den Burgh]

Guy,

I've noticed with my seacocks that it is necessary to gently push the tapered portion into the barrel as I spin the washer until it seats on the flat spot. I then hold the washer in place while I tighten the retaining nut against the washer. If you've already tried that and it still won't go together, I'm not sure what's going on. Hopefully, it wasn't damaged by freezing water.

[bottomscraper]

Did you mix up the parts? They are not interchangeable, even
the same size seacocks. It is best to sevice then one at a time
so you don't get them mixed up. Guess how I found that out

[Dick Barthel]

nm

[Steve Laume]

Did you mix up the parts? They are not interchangeable, even
the same size seacocks. It is best to sevice then one at a time
so you don't get them mixed up. Guess how I found that out

Your advice is about six years too late for me.

I took them all out at once and was sure to label them very clearly with a tab of duct tape and permanent marker. The problem was that the bucket of cleaning solution I soaked them in rendered the marker less than permanent.

It took me a very long time to swap barrels around until I thought I got them all in the right bodies. I am still not positive they are as original but they have all worked fine ever since.

For a couple of years I did them one at a time as suggested. My original idea was good and made the job much more efficient, it was just the marking that failed.

So I once again pulled all the barrels and marked them with tape and a marker. This time I took them straight back to the shop and stamped all the handles with letter punches.

I didn't write out everything but gave them codes like HD, ENG, GS, HS, and I forget what I did for P & S cockpit but you get the idea.

The locations are now fixed in the metal itself and I can pull all at once with no fear of a mix up. It is nice to be able to take them back to the shop and thoroughly clean them up on the bench when time allows instead of at the yard.

I suppose you could use an engraver but the letter punches do a very fine job, Steve.