Broken ball valve on engine intake

[Peter M]

I was going to Launch my Beneteau 373 tomorrow and found the ball valve on the thru hull for the engine intake was broken in the closed position. There is not a lot of room to get at the valve. Does it just unscrew from the thru hull? Any suggestions how to get it off it does not want to budge.
Thanks

Peter M

 

[Gunni]

Well the good news is you won't have to pay for the haul to replace the valve. You may be able to unscrew the valve from the thru-hull and get a new valve onto the thru-hull threads. Otherwise you are under the boat replacing the thru-hull. I would do the whole thing, getting a new valve onto an old thru-hull is a gamble, likely will be a poor seal, will leak. It is important to exercise your thru-hulls to prevent the ball from freezing.

 

[Philip_Oceanis 361]

Since the boat is still not in the water i agree with Gunni to replace the whole thing. If the through hull is old trying to remove the ball valve may break it anyway.

 

[helmfam]

Yes it should unscrew. You may try heating the ball valve with a hair dryer, heat gun, or very carefully a torch to try to coax it. Consider using a penetrating oil on the threads too to help loosen it. Use some big channel locks and take out all of the plywood so you can access it more easily. Then replace the ball valve using T plus 2 teflon paste. Before screwing on the ball valve turn the fitting counter clockwise until you hear a thunk, then twist it on clockwise. That trick helps prevent cross threading.