SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Hello again all you good people. I'm reposting this on a new thread in case the post on my "old" thread does not get seen.



Well, I'm in a pickle, and I need your good help again. After
successfully doing the sprinkler vqlve replacement job last December,
I'm back in Florida and I had to MOVE everything I did about 20 ft
back, due to a garage addition I plan on doing.



I moved the pipes fine, and have no leaks. I replaced the wires, etc, and I'm sure that was done correctly.



This is what I did wrong....after I was done with the wiring, I turned
on the water. Then I went to the control box and tried to do a manual
start. Nothing.



Then I remembered about the bleed screw. I turned off the water, and
opened the bleed screws. There was some air hammer, and alot of air
came out, then water. When doing this on each valve, when the water
came out the sprinkler heads on each valve line opened a bit and water
came out. When the water seemed steady coming out of the bleedscrew, I
turned the bleedscrew back off.



I went to do another manual start, and....nothing. Now what do I do? I'm thinking it is a problem with air or water with the valves.....(I think). When opening the bleedscrew, water does flow to each zone, but I'm thinking that I did not do my "restart" in the right order, so that is the problem. I need to fix this soon, because I go back up north in a few days.



Thank you in advance for the help.



Respectfully, Frank D.

Thanks guys.......I knew I'd get good help here!

Well, I replaced the fuse, both the old fuse and the new look good.

I then turned on a zone manually. Still no water to the sprinkler heads.
I took my electrical tester, the kind that lights and makes a chirping sound when you get it close to a live wire, and all eight wires, (two wires on each solenoid times the 4 zones, showed "hot". I would have thought that only one wire on each zone would be hot, except the zone that was on, which would have been both...??

Now, I did the wiring the same, just spliced a longer wire in between the controller and the valves, red to red, blue to blue, etc....

I also spliced a longer wire to my rain gauge. To eliminate that variable, to make sure it is not the rain gauge, should I just temporally put those two wires together and see if that works?

As to the two screws, I assumed the little screw that has the indent for the phillips head screwdriver, but you can also just use your fingers to turn them, that was the bleeder. I did not touch the big knob that has the "on-off" tab that does not seem to do anything.

I did not think I would have a problem at all, since everything was working fine, and all I was doing was moving the whole thing down the house 20 feet, and just splicing some longer wires.....

I'm a bit bummed, but you guys are so patient and helpful, I do appreciate it very much. Boy, it is humbling when you're stumped.......

Frank D.

Well, I went back outside, and I "bugged" the two wires together that go to the rain gauge. That did not work.

I did misspeak in the last post. Those little "on-off" tabs that seem to do nothing are under the solonoids, not the big knob. Either way, I did not touch those, or the big knob in the middle. The smaller screw next to the big knob I believe is the bleeder valve.

I did turn those again slowly. when I opened them a bit, water came out of them steady, and the valves seemed to open, water flowed to the sprinkler heads. When I turned the bleeder screw down, turning it off, the valve closed abruptly (you could hear it close), and a little bit of water came out of the "other" side of the valve towards the line for a second , kind of like a water hammer relief thing.

I will now recheck all my wires. I do not see a ground anywhere except on the controller from the transformer. I see no ground outside........but everything worked fine before.....??

Frank D.

Well, Thanks to you great gurus of sprinklers, it is fixed.
I did not notice before, but one of the two white wires was broken.
I at first could not figure where it went to. I knew it was a "common" wire, and that one of the white wires went to all of the other wires, so that one was ok.

I first tried to touch the two white wires together, and nothing happened. That made sense. But if a wire was broken, as was the other wire, where was the other half?? It was not anywhere.

I then thought, a common wire is neutral, and is also a ground. There was a thick copper ground wire running agross that side of the house, clamped to a hose bib a few feet down from the new location. I touched the broken white wire to the ground rod, and the sprinklers came on and worked perfect!

So I ran a wire from the ground clamp and attached it to that broken wire. All is now well........but I still have no idea how it worked before, because I do not remember anything attached to any ground before.....

Thanks again guys!! You're the best.

Frank D.