by Beezer on Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:32 pm
Thanks for the replies. I was afraid it might be the wrong steam valve stem. D'oh!
On the positive side, just pulling apart the old valve and putting it back together seems to have greatly reduced the leak. I guess I might have dislodged some crud that was interfering with the seal. Maybe I won't need to do any further work on it. Or maybe it will start leaking again right away. Who knows?
On the negative side, the whole valve assembly is now a bit loose, so the whole thing moves around when I swing the wand out. I removed the side panels and tried to tighten it up, but it's almost impossible to get a wrench in behind the front panel to tighten the nut that holds the valve in place. Grrr. I got it a bit tighter, but it still moves a bit. Oh well, I think it's good enough for the moment. Maybe I'll give it another shot this weekend. Or not.
Lock and load!