Frozen cockpit drains.

[Bob Glover]

I own a CD/22 and the cockpit drains are frozen & I am inquiring how to remove the seacocks without damaging the hull. What are the orderly steps to accomplish this maintenance problem.

[D. Stump, Hanalei]

Captain Glover,

First, soak them with penetrating oil, the best you can find.
Second, Have a beer!
Third, use a 12-16 inch pipe wrench to enclose the lever jaws between the jaws of the wrench. (It is possible to bend the seacock handle, and it will seperate - it is only bronze,so don't use the lever to try to free the barrel).
Fourth, try moving the pipe wrench back and forth to break the barrel free.

All of the above is a lot easier than trying to hammer on the seacock handle with little mechanical advantage. I wouldn't put so much pressure on the wrench that you flex the hull though, and I wonder if you could anyway. CD's are built pretty solid!

Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei CD-30C "1"

[Neil Gordon]

You shouldn't have to remove the seacocks... you just have to get them unfrozen.

I got mine working with lots of WD40 and some leverage on the handles until I got the barrel to turn. I suggest lots of penetrating oil, disassembly, more penetrating oil, gental taps with a mallet (careful, because the bronze is soft) and keep working until they are free. Then they need to be cleaned, lapped, greased and reassembled.

By the way, out of the water is a good idea!


Regards, Neil
s/v LIQUIDITY
Cape Dory 28 #167



cdory28@aol.com

[Stan W.]

Assuming that you have the plug and barrel type seacocks, and assuming that you are out of the water, just back off the lock nut until it protects the end of the threads and then give it a sharp rap with a hammer. The plug should pop loose. My tool of choice is a mason's hammer which looks and performs like a baby sledge hammer.



smwheatley@capecod.net

[Stan W.]

you need to back off both nuts, not just the lock nut.



smwheatley@capecod.net

[Brian Johnson]

I second all of the above comments. After several hours spread over multiple days of grunting and straining trying to break them free with no avail, I tried the pipe wrench and freed them with very little effort. The pipe wrench fits perfectly once the handle of the seacock is removed. The only other thing I did was cover the teeth on the pipe wrench with duct tape to prevent the teeth from biting the bronze. Good luck.
Brian

[D. Stump, Hanalei]

Brian,

I didn't even remove the handles. They are on there with a drift pin. Requires more hammering to get the pin out. I simply fitted the jaws of the wrench over the fork of the handle, worked great and I will NEVER grunt at a seacock again! Didn't even tape the jaws of the wrench, saw no scoring of the handle.

[Ken Coit]

Well, you have lots of advice. Here's some more.

Loosen the nuts and use something to try to lubricate the barrel. Kerosene worked for me; I soaked it from top and bottom and stuffed kerosene saturated paper towel in from the outside. Let it sit and work for awhile. Drink a beer or have a good night's sleep as you think appropriate. Then, rather than trying to turn the barrel, which it is quite resistant to do, just tap the nuts and drive the barrel away from the housing. Once that is accomplished, even a little bit, the lube will get in there and you will be able to work the barrel out. This will cause no scoring of the barrel or housing whereas turning it without lubrication is quite likely to scratch both.

Read some of the older posts on what grease to use. We are using Morey's Red EP on Parfait this year and it is holding up well so far.

Ken
CD/36 Parfait
Raleigh, NC

I own a CD/22 and the cockpit drains are frozen & I am inquiring how to remove the seacocks without damaging the hull. What are the orderly steps to accomplish this maintenance problem.

parfait@nc.rr.com

[bud]

A few beers sounds like the tool of choice for removing frozen seacocks.
It lubricates the sailors joints so that they can contort themselves into those sail lockers!



bud_weiser@yahoo.com