radiator valve

Slimpickins

I had a job on Friday replacing 7 radiator valves on cast iron radiators. I had to remove one toilet to get to a valve and the job was going great until the last one. Stuck the spud wrench in to remove the union tailpiece and it just spun around, the nubs were wore out inside the pipe. I tried my 18" pipe wrench and was only able to get it on the edge of the union and deformed it slightly. I probably need to sawsall the nut off to get a better grip with a pipe wrench but that scars me since I already deformed it,  It was a small rad so I capped the heat lines off and brought the rad home in my truck to work on it.  Any ideas or tips to get it out? Would an internal pipe extractor get it out? It's 3/4 by the way.

Mike Kusiak_2

Tailpiece removal

My advice would be to first cut off the nut, then place a closely sized deep socket from a wrench set inside the tailpiece so it will not collapse further. The use a pipe wrench to unscrew it. Since you are replacing the the valve anyway, any damage to the old tailpiece wont matter.



 This method has always worked for me.

jeff_25

tail pc

after you cut off nut put blade inside of tail pc make 2 cuts just far enough not 2 cut the treads then that a small chisel or screwdriver and a hammer bust out the small pc between the cuts then collapse the remaining pc then that it out

Mark Eatherton

Heres a link for people trying to break these things loose....

http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/94918/Surprise-torque-thanks-ME



It won't do you much good if the pawls are already sheared off, but it will help you to avoid this situation in the first place.



I like Mike's idea of placing something solid, like a solid steel dowel inside the barrel to keep it from going sideways on you. One could take some 3/4" rebar and grind it down to fit common tail piece sizes, and or place multiples inside of large tail pieces.



Alternately, I guess one could use their spud wrench on the inside, and a pipe wrench on the outside.



ME

bob_46

Pipe wrench

Don't forget to three point the pipe wrench.

Slimpickins

thanks for tips

I knew I could count on the wall. I've the the sawsall cutting on the inside of the pipe before but wanted to do that at the last resort. Now sure what 3 point the wrench means though.

Mark Eatherton

3 point...

With a conventional pipe wrench, you have the fixed jaw, and the adjustable jaw. A 3 point setting has the fixed and adjustable jaw in contact with the working pipe surface, and the back/inside of the hook jaw should just touch the pipe, hence 3 point contact.



Theoretically, the chances of flattening or collapsing the pipe is slim to none in a 3 point contact configuration, assuming the pipe is in good shape and not thinned out.



Most people like to work with a 2 point contact, which will work OK provided you don't have to worry about flattening out the tube...



ME

Slimpickins

tips

I wanna thank everyone for the tips, the socket on the inside of the tailpiece was key.