Broke off bushing in cast iron radiator, pointers?

bschaller

I've had a tough time with even heating in my house, each radiator is a different size on my second floor, the smallest room having the largest, the mid size room the smallest, and the largest room, the bed room having the mid size one.



By playing musical chairs with my radiators, I thought it would be no problem to get even heat.



I just removed the first radiator, but I have a problem! First, the spud. Broke off the teeth on the inside of the valve union. No go, can't get a grip on the valve union. Next broke off bushing inside the radiator! I even tried heating the area around the busing prior to removing it. I've been carefully hacking away and using a chisel and file to attempt to remove the remaining iron collar. I am having an awful time removing it, plus im pretty sure that i will need to re-tap the threads.



Any pointers?



Thanks,

Bruce S.

nicholas bonham-carter

Broken spud

Try to make several hacksaw cuts from the inner surface of the spud towards the threads of the radiator WITHOUT hitting the threads. Use a sharp chisel to hammer the quadrants into the center of the pipe. Use a wire brush to clean up the threads, before installing the new radiator valve and it's matching spud.

For the other, see if the valves are the same make, as they should be, having all been installed together, and then the spuds would be interchangeable.--NBC