[INSwimmer]

I turned my water spigot off (clockwise) too hard and now cannot stop the water from coming out. Is this an easy repair? I've been looking at pipe diagrams most of the afternoon, but I am still unsure what to do. Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks.
-ward

[speedball1]

Hey Ward, This might not look like your faucet, (see image) but the innards are the same. What I think happened is that you stripped the threads in the stem or valve body. If that's the case the only solution would be to replace the valve. Sorry, Tom

[INSwimmer]

I live in Indiana, so I think I have a different kind of spigot. A recessed washer silcock to prevent freezing maybe? I may just end up calling a plumber.

[labman]

Don't give up yet. Shut the water off somehow, the main valve if you have to. If you do that, you may have to shut the hot water heater off too. Unscrew the bonnet nut, and you should be able to unscrew the insides. You will pull a long ways getting the stem of a frost proof faucet out. Look over the pieces and figure out what is damaged. Take the damaged part to a real hardware store, I like Ace or Top Value. They maybe able to supply new insides or a whole new faucet. Most of them just screw on.

[INSwimmer]

Don't give up yet. Shut the water off somehow, the main valve if you have to. If you do that, you may have to shut the hot water heater off too. Unscrew the bonnet nut, and you should be able to unscrew the insides. You will pull a long ways getting the stem of a frost proof faucet out. Look over the pieces and figure out what is damaged. Take the damaged part to a real hardware store, I like Ace or Top Value. They maybe able to supply new insides or a whole new faucet. Most of them just screw on.

I took the whole thing out after I shut off the water main. I took the stem out, looked at it and compared to diagrams I saw online and couldn't figure the dang thing out. I will see if there is an Ace/ True Value around here and take in the parts. The Lowe's by me is awful. If that doesn't work I may post some photos online and show you guys what it looks like.

I appreciate all yous guys' help and I'll report tomorrow, Saturday Oct 14th.

[labman]

Usually they are about the same inside as any other globe valve except for the looooong stem to shut the water off at the seat inside out of the cold. The seat way at the back could be damaged too. You have the seat, a washer to seal against it, a threaded stem to rise when you turn the handle, a nut that also holds the packing around the stem.

[INSwimmer]

This is what I pulled out of my spigot. Any idea what I need to replace?
Thanks again.
















http://www.flickr.com/photos/inswimm...7594327622237/

[labman]

The stem in the top picture looks normal with the washer intact. My guess is that the seat is damaged. Go back to Tom's picture. You have all the same parts, it is just that the longer stem runs 90 degrees from the one in the picture. You are going to have to remove the whole thing. It should unscrew, although some dolt soldered one of mine in. There is a slight chance once you have it out, you can remove the seat and buy a replacement for it. Look for a hole an Allen wrench will fit in at the back end.

Otherwise, just buy a new one the same length, and screw it in using your favorite pipe dope.

Make sure when back together, it doesn't slope up as it comes out. The whole theory to them is you shut the water off inside, and all the water runs out. I narrowly escaped a major flood this spring at my church. Sloppy installation by others left one sloping upwards and room for cold air to infiltrate. It froze and burst outside the seat over the winter. When I went to use it, as soon as I turned it on, water came flooding out. Fortunately somebody was inside and came running out screaming about the flood. I just remove the 2 ends and soldered them to a new length of copper tubing. It now slopes down, and has instant foam keeping the cold air out. They may not use them much in cozy Florida.