sloegin wrote:You can clean up the rust on the spring by soaking it in a warm 50/50 mix of citric acid and vinegar. Then wash with soapy water, and dry.

Will give it that a try, thanks!

I worked through the boiler bolts finally.

Initially, 5 of the 9 bolts came off without too much trouble, but the remaining 4 didn't want to budge. I needed more leverage for the socket wrench so I screwed two 1" square dowels I had lying around to a 2x4 to rest the boiler on its side and protect the valve fittings while I torqued the socket. In the end, of the remaining 4 bolts, 2 ended up shearing - they were pretty rusted. So the final boiler tally: 2 of 9 boiler bolts sheared, 1 of 2 element bolts sheared.



The next project is going to be getting the aluminum flange ring off. As you can see there's a fair amount of rust/scale built up around the bolts, so I'm going to need to chip away at it bit by bit. Curious to hear if anyone has any tips for this part, as well as extracting the sheared bolts.

Looking forward to following this...

sloegin wrote:You can clean up the rust on the spring by soaking it in a warm 50/50 mix of citric acid and vinegar. Then wash with soapy water, and dry.

I soaked the spring in a vinegar/citric acid bath in the sonic cleaner. It loosened a bit of rust off, but, it feels like this spring is too far gone to continue using. Lmk if any thoughts, thanks!

mingiunate wrote:Will give it that a try, thanks!

I forgot. Time of soak, check it after 15 minutes or so. It can go back in if it needs more. I wouldn't leave it for an extended period.

Yeah, that looks pretty crusty!

I worked on taking apart the valves while I mull over the plan of attack for the boiler.
The gas valve was pretty straightforward to come apart. No major issues there.


The steam valve also came apart without too much trouble. I did have some trouble pulling the camshaft out the bottom, but rigged up the bearing separator to get the job done. The metal disc didn't want to pop out of the top, but a small screwdriver helped me push it out from the bottom.




The water valve is still giving me some trouble. I got the top and bottom fitting apar, but the left and right fittings don't want to move. I did a few cycles in the sonic cleaner with a vinegar and citric acid heated bath followed by a shock in ice cold salt water - but still no luck. On the bright side, it is getting pretty clean. There was also what felt like meters of pipe sealant thread stuffed into these valves.




Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to loosen up those last 2 fittings? How delicate is this 3-way valve? I haven't been applying as much force as I know I could for fear of breaking it. Its also a bit awkward shaped, so I've been searching for the best way to fix it in a vise.

mingiunate wrote: Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to loosen up those last 2 fittings? How delicate is this 3-way valve? I haven't been applying as much force as I know I could for fear of breaking it. Its also a bit awkward shaped, so I've been searching for the best way to fix it in a vise.

My first thought is maybe a heat cycle or two. If that doesn't do it, I'd try two big wrenches on each end and place the whole thing on the ground. Have the wrenches in a V, with each wrench handle a couple inches off the floor, so that when you press down on each they will loosen each side. You can always set it up so all the downward weight is on the wrench heads, and not on the valve itself. Just watch your knuckles when one end loosens....

When I say heat and cool it I meant get a torch to heat it up to where water will boil off the surface and then toss it in cold ice water. When undoing these valves I place one of the hex heads in the vise jaws (with copper soft jaws over the regular ones) and the 30mm wrench on the other side so that I can possibly unscrew either one in the process. If it still is stuck place it back in citric acid, wait a bit, and repeat the cycle

IamOiman wrote:When I say heat and cool it I meant get a torch to heat it up to where water will boil off the surface and then toss it in cold ice water. When undoing these valves I place one of the hex heads in the vise jaws (with copper soft jaws over the regular ones) and the 30mm wrench on the other side so that I can possibly unscrew either one in the process. If it still is stuck place it back in citric acid, wait a bit, and repeat the cycle

mikel wrote:My first thought is maybe a heat cycle or two. If that doesn't do it, I'd try two big wrenches on each end and place the whole thing on the ground. Have the wrenches in a V, with each wrench handle a couple inches off the floor, so that when you press down on each they will loosen each side. You can always set it up so all the downward weight is on the wrench heads, and not on the valve itself. Just watch your knuckles when one end loosens....

Finally got this valve apart. I wasn't ready to use a torch yet, but did 4 or 5 cycles of heating the valve in boiling water on the stove followed by a dunk in ice water. I fixed it in a vice and had to apply a LOT of force to finally get those fittings off. I was pretty worried about breaking the valve, but seems to be fine.


There wasn't a ton of scale in there, and the rubber gaskets are in really good shape which is surprising... I wonder if these were replaced?
The triangle valve piece on one side was quite twisted, and I'm not sure if thats what made the fitting so hard to remove. I'll need to check if this is still functional as is, or if I need to replace this piece. Any suggestions for where to find another? I don't see it at TSE.