groco strainer lid frozen

Groco strainer lid frozen. Unable to remove with spanner wrench and reasonable muscle. I fear more muscle will tear it out of its mounting. It has been suggested to use a torch to heat it. Because the lid screws INTO the strainer body it seems heat expansion might not be the best course of action.
If anyone has faced this dilema could you please describe in detail how you resolved it. Thank you.
Cheers,
-David

Tap the top of the lid firmly with a hammer. Try the wrench again and have someone tap the lid firmly with the hammer while apply wrench pressure.

Ted

Do please make sure the through hull is closed.

menzies said:

Do please make sure the through hull is closed.

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+1 and open the drain to remove the pressure.

Ted

Small hammer, lots of taps, not too hard, no need to maul it. Just need to break the bond.

If it does not loosen up with moderate force on the wrench, push harder.

petdoc4u said:

Groco strainer lid frozen. Unable to remove with spanner wrench and reasonable muscle. I fear more muscle will tear it out of its mounting. It has been suggested to use a torch to heat it. Because the lid screws INTO the strainer body it seems heat expansion might not be the best course of action.
If anyone has faced this dilema could you please describe in detail how you resolved it. Thank you.
Cheers,
-David

Click to expand...

Correct. Whoever gave you that advice should be avoided the next time you are looking for advice.

There is a product available in auto parts stores that is a combination of penetrating oil and a refrigerant. It will cool (and thus shrink) parts that it is sprayed on. It works as advertised but you have to use more product than you would normally use to get enough cooling to do the job. You might use a third of the can or so.

Between the cooling and the penetrating action, you should find it easier to remove the cover with a wrench without damaging the strainer.

Heat can work. Heat lid, not hot enough to melt orings, but modest heat. Spray penetrant in and tap with hammer. Go have a beer. Come back and try wrench again, maybe some more taps. Heating AND cooling tend to break the microscopic bond between the threads, and also can suck in penetrant, though not likely past the orings. Still try a little of this and a little of that. Never been denied.

Here is another crazy idea. It sounds like you have a Groco ARG series strainer. First close the seacock. Then remove the plastic bowl. Now heat the bronze body, not the lid. This will cause the body to expand away from the lid. After you put out the fire and before the strainer cools, you should be able to unscrew the lid.

The right way to do this is to remove the darn thing from the boat, clamp it in a big vice and work on it there.

PB Blaster, follow the directions

"PB Blaster, follow the directions"

YUP! time is a help

All depends if taking the strainer off and disassembling is an option.

Sounds if the lid is frozen, the whole thing could use a tune up.

If apart, lots of the suggestions will probably work.

I have found I have broken less things, such as bolts by using a very long lever arm with tiny in cements of force rather than a shorter one with more muscle. Tapping and PB Blaster to the underside with alternating heat or cold applied will probable get it.

Just the hassle of taking it out and apart is the ugly issue.

I've used Deoxit to loosen stainless screws frozen to aluminum. It seems to attack the built-up oxidation. Worth a try and it's a handy product to have in your toolbox to clean up electrical connections.

This is the product I mentioned above:




$5.00 at Autozone

Try using the Freeze Off and a hammer and blunt-ended punch. A socket extension will work as a punch (a brass drift would be ideal). I find that using a hammer and a punch causes less damage than a hammer alone.

petdoc4u said:

Groco strainer lid frozen. Unable to remove with spanner wrench and reasonable muscle. I fear more muscle will tear it out of its mounting. It has been suggested to use a torch to heat it. Because the lid screws INTO the strainer body it seems heat expansion might not be the best course of action.
If anyone has faced this dilema could you please describe in detail how you resolved it. Thank you.
Cheers,
-David

Click to expand...

WesK said:

Correct. Whoever gave you that advice should be avoided the next time you are looking for advice.

There is a product available in auto parts stores that is a combination of penetrating oil and a refrigerant. It will cool (and thus shrink) parts that it is sprayed on. It works as advertised but you have to use more product than you would normally use to get enough cooling to do the job. You might use a third of the can or so.

Between the cooling and the penetrating action, you should find it easier to remove the cover with a wrench without damaging the strainer.

Click to expand...

Just an FYI here.

One the tricks I learned early in my career when I worked at a shop that specialized in the restoration of vintage Rolls Royce autos was a method of freeing stuck bolts with heat. Contrary to what one might believe, the preferred method was to heat the bolt/head itself and not the surrounding metal. This caused the bolt to expand in the hole so that once it cooled a bit, out it came.

It works like magic and I've many removed hundreds of bolts this way in my life. I used to love heading out into the shop to help a new employee with a stuck bolt, grab the torches and proceed to pull it out! You can imagine the looks I'd get...

Of course it does not always work and there are times when only a machine shop will do the trick!

By the way, I have been known to use a heat gun for the same result and I wonder if the advice given might have worked if a heat gun was used...

The small hammer trick is a good one and would probably suffice in this case.

Bruce

First off it needs to be dry not wet with salt water for rust busters to work.
I would definitely use a torch to heat it, most likely off the boat. If it is all bronze parts, lots of heat wont hurt it.

Then I would spray it and whack it with hammers and punches etc...
Heating and cooling makes the metal move breaking the corrosion bonds and also then the rust busters can get in and work easier.

I suppose an antiseize would be ok to keep the threads from getting stuck again.
I have seen aluminum, copper, nickel based antiseize compounds. Or even use a marine water resistant grease.

Don't be afraid to tap and wrench in the tightening direction. Not far, of course, but just if you can, but couldn't in the loosening direction. Once you break the bond, it should turn both ways.

I always tap mine to get it off.

Thinking ahead, when you do get it apart, grease the threads. It will help seal it and make removal easier for next time.

Thank you to everyone for your responses. By the way, I also tried reasoning, scolding and cussing which didnt work either.
Ill let you know what worked when I next attempt to break it free.

jleonard, do you have a particular grease recommendation in mind?

petdoc4u said:

Thank you to everyone for your responses. By the way, I also tried reasoning, scolding and cussing which didnt work either.

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Never skip the prayers.

I spray my sea-cocks and valves and bronze plumbing with Deep Creep, and it gives me confidence that I will later be able to move ithem. Sometimes I cheat and use a torque wrench as a slow breaker bar, more than me being a hammer swinger-persuader.

Dry ice or ice on the cover, heat on the body.

mgdavis said:

Dry ice or ice on the cover, heat on the body.

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I like that. Might not need the heat if you can chill the cover.

mgdavis said:

Dry ice or ice on the cover, heat on the body.

Click to expand...

I wonder if chilling the cover pulls the lid tighter down on the sealing surface.

Ted

River Rat said:

jleonard, do you have a particular grease recommendation in mind?

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I use whatever I have.

HopCar said:

. . . . . The right way to do this is to remove the darn thing from the boat, clamp it in a big vice and work on it there.

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You know it makes sense! The alternative is to tear the mounting screws out of the backing material. Then you have two repairs instead of only one.

any grease will help but copper antisieze would be my choice.

Ted, the lid on the Groco ARG series of strainer has male threads so cooling it would shrink them away from the female threads in the body of the strainer.

HopCar said:

Ted, the lid on the Groco ARG series of strainer has male threads so cooling it would shrink them away from the female threads in the body of the strainer.

Click to expand...

Yes, but it has a face seal in the top of the housing. Does shrinking the lid pull the lid flange tighter against the housing?

Ted

Hammer and chisel. Get the blade of the chisel to catch in the lid where the holes stick out. TAP TAP TAP. This method has never failed me. No heat or penetrant needed. It also works to free conventional shaft packing nuts...especially when that nut is down in a keel where the keel walls prevent a wrench being used...which was the case with my Prairie 29.