Seized up Bronze Seacocks

[Cheechako]

IME replacing tapered bronze seacocks is rare. You'll get em done. Assuming you don't have the top loading kind but they look like this, as others have said, just back off the nuts a little, protect the thread and rap on the end with a hammer. A metal or dead blow hammer works great as it needs a little "shock" to break it free. Once free just take the nuts off and slide it out. I've never had to "lap" a tapered seacock, I just clean them up with scotch pad etc.

[SecureDelivery]

soak w/ white vin.
apply gas wrench.
don't burn your hull (directly or thru conduction)
apply elbow grease.
a cheater bar never hurts.
muriatic acid in a spray bottle if this fails....don't breath it.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Can you unbolt them, & take'em off to soak the entire thing(s) in a bucket of penetrating oil? And also, has cold been tried? As in Loctite's Freeze-n-Release, and or a real long blast of compressed air, from say, a scuba tank. A "soaking" with Dry Ice might be worth a shot also.
A cautionary note on this: If you try the cold thing, just be gentle with the sea cocks in terms of handling/tapping, as metal does "funny" things when it's at 40-50 degrees below zero.

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

Can you unbolt them, & take'em off to soak the entire thing(s) in a bucket of penetrating oil? And also, has cold been tried? As in Loctite's Freeze-n-Release, and or a real long blast of compressed air, from say, a scuba tank. A "soaking" with Dry Ice might be worth a shot also.
A cautionary note on this: If you try the cold thing, just be gentle with the sea cocks in terms of handling/tapping, as metal does "funny" things when it's at 40-50 degrees below zero.

Thanks for those suggestions. We're open to pretty much anything at this point.

[autumnbreeze27]

Mine came loose with multiple pb blaster applications and a cheater bar.

My only advice, is don't get impatient. I get impatient all the time, and then it ends up taking 10x longer. I'd probably spray them with pb blaster and jiggle the cheater bar for a week, and if that makes no progress then start applying break it pressure.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by SecureDelivery

a cheater bar never hurts.

I'd beg to differ on this one. Such tools are definitely helpful on some things, within reason. But simply apply brute force & mass ignorance can leave you with a pile of expensive broken gear sometimes.

[SecureDelivery]

Unciviized: i see you are in the mid-west lakes region.
not trying to make assumptions but, salt water environments have very diff effects.
also: if applying tools to the task is 'brute' then nothing would get repaired.
No one is saying mangle the thing. I've worked in a shipyard and can tell you these are the methods employed by a marine mechanic when hired to do something the owner could not accomplish.
When I have seen a seacock fail under load from a cheater bar (after all efforts have been explored) it's typically the handle that fails. If the body folds, then you don't want that seacock anyhow.
OP: I can't emphasize enough how the use of muriatic acid can aide in this process.

[Blue Crab]

OP: As Ed pointed out, a couple of the true gurus have spoken and they did not recommend brute force/cheater bars/freezing or a zero gravity environment. Kryptonite would work but neither Ace Marine or We$t Marine carries it anymore thanks to the EPA edicts.

I inherited two frozen seacocks with broken off handles from the PO.

Listen to the gurus. On the net, one gets many opinions and the occasional way off the wall suggestion. You two have been on CF long enough to have a hunch which folks actually know what they're talking about. One sort of rhymes with hangnail.

Do not become tapped out Grasshopper. Tap...tap. Loosen the nuts...heat...tap tap tap. Wax on wax off. Think low energy convection oven rather than microwave or tactical nuke. Tap... tap...heat...tap...tap.
A journey around the earth under sail begins with a single tap ...then tap...tap...tap.

This:

Not this:

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

OP: As Ed pointed out, a couple of the true gurus have spoken and they did not recommend brute force/cheater bars/freezing or a zero gravity environment. Kryptonite would work but neither Ace Marine or We$t Marine carries it anymore thanks to the EPA edicts.

I inherited two frozen seacocks with broken off handles from the PO.

Listen to the gurus. On the net, one gets many opinions and the occasional way off the wall suggestion. You two have been on CF long enough to have a hunch which folks actually know what they're talking about. One sort of rhymes with hangnail.

Do not become tapped out Grasshopper. Tap...tap. Loosen the nuts...heat...tap tap tap. Wax on wax off. Think low energy convection oven rather than microwave or tactical nuke. Tap... tap...heat...tap...tap.
A journey around the earth under sail begins with a single tap ...then tap...tap...tap.

This:

Not this:

They (the gurus) definitely wrote it a bit more elegantly... AND... backed it up with statistics of success rates!

A handle is designed to take the load it needs to... If they were meant to have breaker bars on them, they would all be 50% bigger...

Indeed as crabby points out... patience is the key to success... Especially when the boat isn't being splashed tomorrow...

Dealing with siezecocks just comes with the territory of our chosen hobby... Especially when maintaining them keeps dropping to the bottom of the list!

[SecureDelivery]

ya'll crack me up....thanks for the morning laughs.

[onestepcsy37]

My boat came with seven 25 year old wilcox crittenden bronze cone type seacocks. All frozen. Hadn't been serviced in many many years. Patience turned out to be the best method.

I backed off the locknut to the end of the thread to protect the thread. Liberally applied PB Blaster. Tapped with a PLASTIC hammer. After a week of daily tapping I got them all loose, except one. The toilet outlet seacock.

For that one I used the Blaster/hammer method too, but in between daily tapping sessions I put a gear puller on it and tightened it down hard, so that there was a continual pressure on it. A few days later, while I was working on something else, I heard a loud bang. I went to look and found the cone and gear puller on the floor. Success!

Needless to say, lap the cones (valve grinding compound ftom an auto parts store), grease them really well, and most important, work them back and forth once a month.

And don't remove the entire valve assembly from the hull. That would open a whole other can of worms...

[onestepcsy37]

By the way, what Cheechako is showing as "drain screw" in his photograph may actually be grease points. You remove the screw and replace it with a grease fitting, use a grease gun to inject some grease, then replace the screw. At least thats how my wilcox are...

Also, you will notice in the same picture that the end of the threaded shaft is visible in the center of the locknut. In the center of the shaft there is a noticeable dimple. That is where the center of the gear puller goes, so I think these seacocks, like mine, were designed to accept gear pullers.

If you decide to use a gear puller, just tighten it up, spray your blaster on, and go away. Come back tomorrow, take off the puller, bang with your mallet till you are tired of banging, then put the gear puller back on. Eventually you will be rewarded.

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

By the way, what Cheechako is showing as "drain screw" in his photograph may actually be grease points. You remove the screw and replace it with a grease fitting, use a grease gun to inject some grease, then replace the screw. At least thats how my wilcox are...

People try that but they are not intended for greasing the cones. They are drain screws for winterizing. They are also EXTREMELY rare because they are cast & machined from the same bronze the seacocks are. If you loose one, this is not good.

[clyde]

as the saying goes, 'i feel for ya!' i have used a product for many years, by the name of 'kroil'...best i`ve ever used! the website is kanolabs.com, email is kanolabs@aol.com. i`m in the seattle area, and it`s easily available...use plenty! any questions, feel free...clyde

[onestepcsy37]

Originally Posted by Maine Sail

People try that but they are not intended for greasing the cones. They are drain screws for winterizing. They are also EXTREMELY rare because they are cast & machined from the same bronze the seacocks are. If you loose one, this is not good.

Living in the land of endless summer it never occured to me that they are for winterizing!

When I got my used csy, two of the w-c seacocks had grease nipples in the holes and the rest had plugs, so I just assumed that was their purpose. Took the better part of a day to move the fittings from seacock to seacock to get them all greased. I think if I lived up north where I hauled every winter it would be a regular part of spring recommissioning to open and regrease each valve....