Galley Seacock

Post your technical questions or solutions about your boat's plumbing here.

Moderator: KenKrawford

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randj
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:09 pm
Location: Charleston, SC

Galley Seacock

Post by randj »

Has anyone changed the O-ring in the handle of the galley seacock? I have a small drip which appears to be coming from the bottom of the handle. I have spoken with Forespar and have received an O-ring replacement. Conversations with Forespar and instructions for installation indicate a simple change out. I have not seen anything on the forum concerning seacocks.

Richard
R Boat
Hull #193
KenKrawford
Posts: 614
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 8:54 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Galley Seacock

Post by KenKrawford »

Richard, there was a thread on the C34 web site a while back about NOT removing the handle from the seacock while the boat is in the water. Here's the link - http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?PHPSESSID= ... 6#msg14266
You may have a different model than the one under discussion. A call to Forespar might be warranted before proceeding. The C34 incident was pretty scary !
Ken Krawford
Message Board Moderator
C350 # 351
Lake Lanier, GA
randj
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:09 pm
Location: Charleston, SC

Re: Galley Seacock

Post by randj »

Ken, I read the article you referenced while I was doing some research last week. The article did make me a little nervous. It would have been helpful to have been able to read about a more successful replacement.

I also talked with Forespar (company that makes the Marelon seacocks). They were very helpful. They provided me a new handle and O-ring with instructions for installation. I was assured the replacement was quite simple. I replaced the handle and O-ring yesterday.
The handle was placed in the off position before removing. I had a small amount of residual water as I removed the screw and eased the handle off. The exchange was completed with no leaks.

I am not sure what happened on the referenced article. The valve series we have has only one O-ring on the handle. A screw holds the handle onto the valve body. The valve body is completely sealed except for the screw hole.

We haven't had much discussion on this topic on our site but I hope this helps if needed.

Richard
R Boat
Hull #193
oceanray
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2013 11:45 pm

Re: Galley Seacock

Post by oceanray »

I was doing my "now" quarterly cycling of all sea cocks...yes I usually just leave most of them open in my Marina, although I may be changing this habit soon at least with regard to raw water inputs to the air conditioning and engine. Anyways I was actually cleaning the filter to my ac input when I noticed that the water did not shut off all the way at the bottom of the strainer. So I played around with cycling the forespar marelon nylon seacock that is installed in my main bilge for my ac raw water intake. I finally got it to close and stop water. Cleaned the strainer. Put it back together and then felt something strange when I opened it again. I played with it some more and sure enough it would not close...by now it is 9pm at night btw....Nothing was leaking but every time I took the small petcock off the bottom of my strainer water came shooting out so my seacock is stuck in the open position. I stop...go online read a dozen articles with conflicting advice from hair pulling emergency warnings of haul it out right now to some practical solutions that involve a little more risk... Either way I draw 4.5 feet and my Florida marina is shallow...I'm sitting in 5.5 feet of water and again nothing is leaking so I make the choice to wait for daylight. I speak to a few old hands, read a few more threads, slap on the wet suit an mask with 5 different sized plugs (including two rubber shower drain plugs-advice from one of the online threads) shoved up the sleeve. I find the thru hull and after 4 trys get the right size plug hand tight in the hole. The smallest wooden plug I had worked. A neighbor boater is in the boat and my wife is the comm relay. He is looking at the strainer and the water stopped completely. Anyways, as advised online, I had every tool I needed except a pair of channel locks in place before starting including a new seacock. Just happened to have a spare on board-got lucky..thank you previous owner (although as it is the only spare on board I am wondering if he had a premonition). Changed the body out only...base is fine and fixed to bilge and thru hull. Marina mechanic advice was to just be sure not to cross thread so I was really careful. I put a little extra silicone gel on the threads and seated it perfectly. I closed the valve, set up the three person comm relay, and pulled the plug, and Neptune was smiling...no leak. Hooked it all back up, and again no leaks. 24 hours later still looking good. I will keep monitoring it.

For those in similar situations...yes it is not too hard to change a marelon seacock in water if you do not have to mess with the thru hull too. Much more complicated if you have to interact with the external fitting or accidentally turn it. And in a pinch in calm weather, warm water (65F in this case), stuffing a plug in the external hole was the immediate solution to the potentially catastrophic problem. The rest was just tools and taking my time. Hope this helps someone.

PS The square stub that the handle interacts with on the actual ball had sheared off...again nylon sea cocks sometimes experience this problem.

Keith Barto
My Sweet Anne VI #142
Merritt Island, FL
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