Frozen/stuck sea cocks, in water, need maitenance.... Help

I think John and I are reading out of the same play book here, but the Groco valves in your photo have not been manufactured in about 20 years. There are no new parts available for them. Why they are in a 1996 model boat is a mystery. My boat was built in May, 1996 and it has the Conbraco-Apollo seacocks. My advice is to not mess with the Groco seacocks a lot until the boat is hauled out of the water. If you break a piece of the seacock, you going to be in trouble.
 
Wistlindixie said:
Playdate, I didn’t even realize it looks cracked until I read your post. I had to reopen and zoom too see it. Darn. I have a mix of valves.

The engines are both those, but the air and generator are the ball valve type. I had never seen these.
Click to expand...

Based on what I see I would not put any leverage on that makeshift handle. I'm not sure if the internal mechanism can turn but if you want to try remove the bolt, mark the shaft position on the housing and use a large pipe wrench to avoid cracking the shaft further. That may work if you work it back and forth slowly. It will need to be rebuilt/replaced at a later date.

Plan B- Which hoses do you need to replace in order to use the boat? The seacock hoses look okay. Since they connect to the raw water pump.....I'm speculating that the hoses you need to address are after the raw water pump. If that is right, it may be possible to change them without a flooding issue.

I'll need Frank to weigh back in on that since he knows your boat.
 
Sometimes its better to leave some things alone. Take Frank's advice and leave the sea cocks alone until you can replace them.
 
If you haven't tried backing off the t-handle on the back they will never move. back off the t handle and spray with pb.
when you back off the t-handle they should start to leak.
 
Those are good seacocks, but they do require maintenance and occasional replacement parts. I had them on my 390EC and it was standard practice to disassemble them, clean and lubricate the rubber plug in the center with silicone grease every time the boat was out of the water, which for me is at least once a year. My worry in this case is that we already see parts than need to be replaced and we know they are not available.

Then the raw water hoses on the 450DA from the seacock to the strainer are an absolute monster to replace because there are very tight bends in God-forsaken places seldom seen by humans and not easily accessible by anything other than a double jointed spider monkey.

If this boat were mine, knowing you have just purchased it and assuming you don't know anything much about its prior service/maintenance, and knowing that you cannot buy replacement parts for the seacocks, I would schedule a haul out and replace the seacocks and the intake hoses before running it much.
 
Frank,

I have never replaced seacocks.

But thinking about it, if I did have this problem - if the boat is hauled out - is this a major expense?

My perspective, if the sea cocks are not operating - they have to be replaced. No question.

Asking for future knowledge.
 
Does the oil in the two products effect the rubber in the valves.
Buna is a common rubber used in most non oil applications because it is softer. if it gets exposed to oil it will swell over time. Viton is used in oil applications and does not swell when exposed to oil. There are lubricants for oil field valves but I have not seen them for buna based valves. Silicon will not hurt buna. 100% silicon spray with a non butane propellent should work. My valves are getting stiff and I have yet to figure out what I will do. Information in this thread seems like good idea. Our boat is stored on land so not hard to service except valves are hard to get at.
 
The Groco bulletin I posted earlier in the thread only recommends silicone grease for the rubber. Petroleum based products will damage the rubber. They also recommend installing a grease fitting to keep it lubricated.

The problem is these valves are 25+ years old and so is the rubber inside of them. Groco recommends replacing them with the ball type. In the OP's case, my bet is that his two valves have been frozen in that position for years. The cracked shaft shows that they probably will never turn again. I'm speculating that shaft corrosion is not the problem for the OP.....the rubber has swollen and there is no way to overcome it while the boat is in the water.

I would venture a guess that the OP is looking at $750-1000 a valve plus the haul out to replace them and the hoses.
 
Update.
I PB blasted them two days now and was able to get closer and inspect the shaft. It does not appear to be cracked. I think someone used vise grips or something at some point and marred the shaft. I loosened the T handle and it did start leaking (freaked me out a bit laying on floor stuck in there). I was finally able to turn this one. I did expect it to "stop" in the closed position but it seems to rotate 360 degrees without a stop.

Now I need to get to the other one. Port side is more awkward to get at. I have a sea water strainer in front of it and no elbow room to leverage it.
 
Had this problem in the fall when I went to winterize. They moved, but were real stiff. Sprayed them with lots of silicone which helped a little. The key was to remove the plug and spray silicone in there. That did the trick. Not all seacocks have the plug but if yours do, it makes things easier. I think you need to have the boat OUT of the water to remove that plug. This was done after haulout. You can see the pvc pipe in the pic. Guess who I consulted with prior to this project.

Worked so well on the one stiff one that I did all of them.
20171013_090923.jpg
20171013_092245.jpg
 
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