Quote:
Originally Posted by stevestrat
This is a long shot but does anybody have any knowledge of the internals of the old tap below 
Its on our rainwater barrel in the garden, old boy next door gave it to my father years ago when my father first set up the water barrel. old boy says it came off an old water boiler/clothes washing thing.
It started leaking and getting worse, the leak isn't coming from the nozzle, its coming down the side between the internal rotating part and the body. There must be some kind of washer that has finally given up the ghost but I can't find any information about what's inside.
I undid the screw thing on the front and didn't find anything behind it . . . . God knows what its for; I removed the nut on top of the handle thinking that would release the rotating internal part, even smacked the thing with a mallet but I couldn't budge it.
Any ideas |
These things are generally very simple - it's probably what's called a gate valve. I'd suggest the screw on the front is a stop & retainer for the tap barrel when it's rotated to open/close the water flow. If you want to have a look at the internals remove the screw at the front and then try extracting the barrel by carefully twisting and lifting upwards - there should be some water in the drum (but only just enough to give you a short deluge so wear some wellies and stand to the side...) to help lubricate the removal. There is probably a couple of rubber 'o' ring seals on the shaft above and below the hole/slot 'gate' that lets the water flow.
Just a guess but no harm in trying