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I hope it is ok to put this topic/question here... first a description
I have a box in the ground that contains 5 valves. The manifold appears to be home-made from 4 T-fittings and one elbow. The elbow goes to the 5th valve, the other 4 use the T-fittings....The first valve has a leak where it is joined to it's T-fitting, it is loose (this is where water would enter the valve). It does not appear to have been primed or glued (no purple stuff), just pushed together. I am thinking of digging up the pipe on the other side of this valve (towards whatever sprinklers, etc. that it services). I want to cut the pipe on the outboard side of the valve and remove the valve. Clean up the T-fitting and it's small piece of pipe, prime it and glue it. Lasttly, I would take 'coupler' (something that would fit over the two pipe ends where I cut it, if they make such a thing. I think they do) and prime and glue that joint together. The pipes and T-fittings appear to be 1" PVC (white). I have done this type of stuff on a drain line before, but never where there has been pressurized water. Both places where I am doing this priming/gluing/joining are under pressure, more so at the T-fitting and maybe less so on the outboard side. Is this how I should attempt this repair ? Will it hold ?
Here is a pic of what I am looking at. I had to shrink it a bit to get it to upload. I added words to show where it leaks and where I want to cut.

Quoted from "mrfixit"

I highly doubt that was installed without any glue at all. Improperly glued most likely. You can try to do what you've suggested. You might get it to work. There's a good chance you wont be able the fitting to come off. They do have a tool to drill the pipe out of the fitting but you don't want to go to that expense.

If i was you I'd completly rebuild the entire manifold. It looks simple enough. I'd install the valves farther apart. Then again they wont fit in the one box if you do. You'd like to be able to unscrew one if need be. The job will probably take about 3-4 hours for a first timer. 1 1/2 - 2 for a pro.

Thanks MrFixit...the pvc is already loose from the T-fitting and could easily be removed from there...if some of the parts between that T-fitting and valve are threaded into the valve, it could be easy enough. I don't know what is threaded and what is glued...yet.

Quoted from "Wet_Boots"

The photo doesn't work. Try an upload to Imageshack and bring back the link. If there isn't one already, maybe you could install a master valve for the system, which would make any tiny leaks downstream of the master valve immaterial.

Hope this works....these are essentially the same image, some are just larger versions...they appear to work for me using copy and paste, but not if I just click on it....
There is a shutoff valve on the main inlet line before these 5 valves, this is how I have the leak currently stopped...of course it shuts off water to the entire system. Because of where this leak is, it isn't tiny.


http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/4585/img0503h.jpg
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2590/img0503ga.jpg
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/215/img0503ae.jpg

Quoted from "mrfixit"

Image shack is what I use. Try cut and pasting the forum code.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Thanks....

Quoted from "Wet_Boots"

The photo doesn't work. Try an upload to Imageshack and bring back the link. If there isn't one already, maybe you could install a master valve for the system, which would make any tiny leaks downstream of the master valve immaterial.

Quoted from "Wet_Boots"

It still looks like these are threaded valves, and as such, you could unthread the valve in question, and reseal the threads with more teflon tape. Downstream of the valve, you would need some sort of union or slip-fix connector.

I am glad to hear you say that. I am assuming that the white part of the fitting screws into the valve. I am going to look at Lowe's today for that part and also a fitting to join two 1" pieces of PVC pipe together (from the cut I will make)(hopefully they will sell both). I have a feeling that there is 1" PVC between the T-fitting and the white fitting (which screws into the valve). I believe the 1" PVC is glued into the fitting that screws into the valve. You cannot really tell from the pictures, but that 1" PVC is loose from the T-fitting (I saw it move when there is water pressure in the line) and could be pulled out easily enough. Also, the gap is larger there, which may mean the original 1" PVC wasn't quite long enough and that is why it pulled loose.