Tips and tricks for opening a stuck seacock?

[bsangs]

Opening up the boat for the season and have a stuck Marelon seacock. Under the galley sink, connected to the outer cockpit scuppers. Keep her shrink-wrapped and in the water for winter, so followed advice and closed it, now regretting that choice as I cannot open it. Brute force, heat, PB Blaster, light tapping with a hammer - the damn thing won't move. Not located in an area that allows for great leverage either. Worked it well back in November before closing it for good, so am completely flummoxed. My diver is going under next week to see if there's anything in the thru-hull that's preventing it from opening. Any other suggestions, or am I gonna be stuck getting her hauled for a replacement? I've plugged up the two outer scuppers so water doesn't weigh down the hoses too much while trying to fix the issue.

Also, with all the great engineering on Ericsons, why in the name of God did they decide to route any cockpit scuppers under the sink? The two scuppers in the middle lead to above water thru hulls, why not do the same for the outer ones? Puzzling.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

Ah, I know those hoses well. Tough to get to and they can get very sticky. You're not gonna want to hear this, but I hope the PB blaster hasn't made the plastic swell or fuse. Marelon make a special synthetic grease for their products. It might just be a branded basic teflon or something. I worked it in good the first year and try to apply some every season but they can still be stiff. I was able to get a short piece of pipe on ours to break it loose, but she was on the hard at the time so I wasn't hampered by the fear of breaking it and sinking. You might have to take the other hoses off to get access. Have you tried swearing?

 

[bsangs]

Ah, I know those hoses well. Tough to get to and they can get very sticky. You're not gonna want to hear this, but I hope the PB blaster hasn't made the plastic swell or fuse. Marelon make a special synthetic grease for their products. It might just be a branded basic teflon or something. I worked it in good the first year and try to apply some every season but they can still be stiff. I was able to get a short piece of pipe on ours to break it loose, but she was on the hard at the time so I wasn't hampered by the fear of breaking it and sinking. You might have to take the other hoses off to get access. Have you tried swearing?

The PB Blaster was the last ditch attempt since nothing else worked for two hours, so at that point my, um, "Eff it!" reflex took over. Not the end of the world, and am glad it's stuck in the closed position, I guess. I "flooded" the cockpit yesterday with the outer scuppers blocked, and the middle ones worked well to clear the water quickly. (Those outer ones are weird anyway. Sometimes water comes through the other when I've flushed them in the past.) I didn't try a pipe or bar because of being in the water, definitely would take one to it if she was on the hard. Swearing didn't work - and I tried every word in the book.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

I feel your pain.

 

[Loren Beach]

Hydroscopy. (possible misspelling)...
The original RC Marine Marelon product that ForeSpar purchased from Australia has a problem with the inside ball valve swelling slightly from moisture.
When ForeSpar changed the design/casting in the 90's, they thought they had allowed for this. I replaced all of our '88 OEM seacocks with the "series 93" product. Definitely better.

But- They are still stiff to rotate.
Decades later, there is finally a new composite valve/seacock product to choose from. If changing again I might check out the TrueDesign product.

I love not having to worry about electrolysis, but wish the Marelon product did not bind.

 

[Nick J]

I don't have long term experience yet, but so far I'm a big fan of TrueDesign. No corrosion concerns, strong enough, and very easy to operate. TrueDesign also uses straight threads which eliminates some of the frustration with trying to fit components together. The collars can be a little finnicky, but it's a minor issue that's easy work work around.

 

[bsangs]

I don't have long term experience yet, but so far I'm a big fan of TrueDesign. No corrosion concerns, strong enough, and very easy to operate. TrueDesign also uses straight threads which eliminates some of the frustration with trying to fit components together. The collars can be a little finnicky, but it's a minor issue that's easy work work around.

View attachment 49651

I actually have one of those on my boat, for the anchor wash down pump. It's easily my favorite seacock on the vessel. And MAN that's one clean galley sink area. Mine is, well, it's not that.

 

[G Kiba]

Sorry, I know that this is in hindsight. Forespar recommends periodically lubricating their Marlon valves with Marlube. I started doing this after breaking the handle off the galley sink drain valve. I close the valve and pour it down the drain and let it sit a while. Then I work the valve open and closed a few times. So far so good. I also use Marlube on head pump shaft which seems to get hard to pump after a few Months.

/https://www.forespar.com/products/marelube-tef45.shtml

 

[G Kiba]

Sorry Wrong Marelube! I use the liquid.

Liquid MareLube

 

[Kenneth K]

I did a blog post on Marelon MF850 ball valves a few years back. It explains some of why the new Forespar 850 valves are better than the RC Marine valves most of our boats originally came with. https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/ubs/forespar-mf850-marelon-ball-valves.575/

Most of this won't do you much good, but here's an off chance. The valves used to be disassemble-able--the lower nut unscrewed from the upper valve body (I don't know if the new valves still do this). If you can hold the base nut steady while loosening the upper nut a few degrees, you might take some pressure off the ball to help you move it. Good luck....

 

[nquigley]

Sorry Wrong Marelube! I use the liquid.

Liquid MareLube

Thanks! I ordered a bottle on Amazon just now

 

[bsangs]

Vacillated between despair, frustration, acceptance, elation and, ultimately, confidence with a matter related to this seacock issue over the weekend. Knowing we were going to have some heavy rains for a couple days, I decided to temporarily plug those scuppers connected to the stuck seacock so no water would collect in the old hoses and potentially weigh them down, which could lead to bigger issues.

I used a rubber plug for one, an emergency plug I keep on board in case I lose a water/waste/fuel cap overboard. Only had one of those, so for the other scupper, I used one of the many softwood plugs I have on board. First time I've ever employed a softwood plug. (Some of you might have already figured out where this is going.) The heavy rains happened late last week, so yesterday I checked those scuppers to see if they were actually water tight. The rubber one seemed to be doing its job, though I felt a little moisture around the threads. Then I went to remove the softwood plug.

And it wouldn't budge. Not even a little. That thing was tighter than a father watching his daughter drive off on her first date. After 15 fruitless minutes trying to get it out, I just stared at it and considered sobbing. Hit up the interwebs, where there really isn't much information about removing a swollen softwood plug. So I did what anyone would do in that situation - cracked open a cold one, sat in my sun-splashed cockpit and decided to ignore it. That lasted about a half-hour, after which I dug out my small saw and drill from the clown-car storage space behind the saloon settee and decided I'd try to saw off the top and drill the thing out. About an hour later, after drilling enough holes through the plug to make a woodpecker proud, I took a pair of pliers and was finally able to rip the thing out. Whew.

So, I won't do that again. Ever. But, it did make me confident those softwood plugs would do the job if ever needed in an emergency. Considering I couldn't fathom how they'd function in that capacity before the Plug Gate experience, I chalked this up to a great boat life lesson learning experience. Then I cracked open another cold one in celebration.