Rebuild Gas Valve

[buckleyv]

Does anyone know if the gas control valves can be rebuilt? Part #161111 is for the valve in question.

[ralper]

DO NOT EVEN THINK OF TRYING TO REBUILD AN ELECTRIC GAS VALVE !!! VERY DANGEROUS !!! I was in the heating business all my life. I know what can happen. No I never did it.

If this unit is a manual light try a plumbing supply house. The price may be better and they may have what you want. Take the old one with you.

[buckleyv]

ralper - Thanks for the response.

That said, the SW6P gas control vavle is located on the outboard side of the tank with the termostat sticking into the tank... what is the best way to get it off. I have searched and searched for instructions on how to get the darn thing off the tank, but nothing.

I finally resorted to an email directly to Suburban Manufacturing's support; we will see.

Anyone got a picture of what to do to get the thing off and a new one on?

THANKS!

[InPursuit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckleyv ...what is the best way to get it off.

best? dunno
only? 99% sure it is **threaded** into the tank like the drain plug and T-P valves are.

[buckleyv]

Well... the control valve is for the gas only model. The used 2006 Fleetwood Niagara Highlander series folding trailer that the SW6P HWH is in had not been used in approximately 2 years.

Since it was not working, I figured taking it apart and seeing how it worked couldn't break it any worse than it was already... besides, I couldn't get the darn thing to budge, as far as removing the entire control valve from the HWH. So I de-constructed it. I should have taken some pictures while I had it apart, but I didn't.

My description is: valve is approximately 4"W x 4"H x 2.5"D. It has a main gas connection on the left side and the off/pilot/on knob on the top left. The back of the box is connected via three screws to a brass fitting that is the thermostat and mounts to the front of the tank. The front of the valve is a plate that is held on by 4 safety hex head screws. Between the cover plate and the rest of the valve box is a thin (very fragile) cork gasket. The inside of the valve is a series of chambers that allow the flow of gas from the main inlet on the left, through to the two gas outlets on the bottom of the valve; one for the pilot and one for the main burner.

The parts in the valve are pretty simple from an engineering standpoint, but I think the key thing is the materials they are constructed from... in particular the main orifice that controls the flow of LP through to the main burner. The part of the valve is a red conical shaped PLASTIC piece, seated in another rubber/plastic seal. When the thermostat tells the controller to open this part of the valve, the red cone is pressed out of the seat and LP flows through to the burner. If everything else is working correctly, voila, you get "woof" and a nice hot blue flame in the combustion chamber. As the HWH had not been used in a couple of years, the red plastic cone had become "stuck/bonded to" the rubber/plastic seat. The solenoid from the thermostat was not strong enough to un-seat the valve and let the gas by.

After taking off the cover plate, I checked each of the moving parts to ensure they would each move; then reassembled the unit. I took particular care with the gasket, as I was pretty sure finding a replacement would be more difficult than turning water into wine.

…back together and fingers crossed… after pressing the pilot for what seemed like an hour, I got it lit; then the moment of truth. I turned the knob to “ON”. It was not an instantaneous “woof”, but after about three seconds it fired up and burned a nice big blue flame.

It only had to burn for about five minutes to get hot water and about 15 minutes to have heated the entire tank. I was very concerned that it would not shut-off properly, but after it got hot, the main burner shut-off and the pilot stayed lit. Hurray!

Saved myself $200 and a lot of dirty looks from my wife for getting a “deal” on our camper!

Now if I hadn’t separated the awning bag from the mount while setting it up yesterday, we would be 100%...LOL!

BTW... thanks for the replies!

[RVhauler]

Congrats on your sucess. Belive that there was a special wrench for removing the valve assy from the tank

[wa8yxm]

It depends on what part of the valve is defective.. Basically an electric or electronic gas control valve consists of two assemblies.. The coil and the rest of it.

In theory it should be possible to replace just one of those two assemblies and not the other

In practice..... The cost of obtaining, for example, JUST THE COIL, would likely exceed the cost of the new valve.

As for the valve internals.. I'd not mess with them.

[oldandred]

Theres a special wrench used to remove the control valve some times you can use a pipe wrench if care full
but I would have it tested for leaks if it does leak you will hear more than a woof

good luck

[wa8yxm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckleyv I took particular care with the gasket, as I was pretty sure finding a replacement would be more difficult than turning water into wine.

I agree. after all, Per the Bible water has been changed into Wine. at least once.



Glad to hear you got it working.

Make sure you test all joints and such for leaks though.

NOTE: My prior post about electric gas valves.. you don't have one.

Another common failure point with that type of valve is the thermocouple that detects if the pilot is piloting. That is a few dollars part.