Here are a couple of snips from the manual that Ditttohead linked to:
Since your clear check valve housing stays full of water, we can eliminate
f.
>I then went to go to try and see what it would do after the
>backwash position was moved from.
That would be regerate/brining.
>When in any of the next cycles, it appeared to me, that water would
>go into the brine tank, but it did not appear it was drawing from
>it? The difficulty here is knowing how far to manually progress
>the little red button, as when I seem to move it a little bit,
>other things gently seem to change...it's like I need to know
>exactly where within the lines/time shown on the guage, that the
>draw part starts. I am thinking I may not be hitting the right
>spot, and because the timer mechanism is broke, it doesn't get to
>that stage. Would I be correct, or am I drawing an incorrect
>assumption, and barking up the wrong tree?
>
>Is there another method to test the draw?
That is a long stage. So anywhere near where the arrow is straight up should be good for the testing that you want to do.
>
>If I were to take the draw line out of the tank, and get say a
>bucket of water, filled to the top, I assume on fill, the water
>should go into the bucket which is full, and now overflow> I assume
>this confirms filling from the valve is working ok...correct?
I presume so also. If that did not happen, then that would narrow the problem to something that affects both brine draw and fill.
>
>Likewise, using the same test, try to find the brine draw area on
>the timer, and see if the bucket starts to empty, indicating it is
>drawing ok..correct?
Yes, but I think it is not going to show emptying in your case, because that is your problem. If the water level in the checkvalve housing and the ball sucked down some during the brining stage, I would be thinking of other causes. But you ball floats high, and the water in the housing stays high.
>
>It is now approaching dark outside and I can do no more until
>tomorrow, so if someone reads this between now and our morning
>time, and has some suggestions, then I would be mightily happy to
>see your suggestions.
>
>At this stage, I have no salt in the brine tank, thinking that
>wasteful until it can be determined if all is ok.
Right.
>
>Lastly, surmising I got this fixed, or even had to purchase another
>valve unit, would it be any sort of use putting a simplistic
>cartridge filter or something in line, prior to the
>ironised/stained water entering the valve, and into the softener
>brine tank etc?
Regarding dealing with the iron before the softener, I think that is warranted. It will save salt too. I suggest a water test to see what you are dealing with before choosing a solution there. I have a single tank backwashing system that works with my water, but it may well not be suitable for yours. The test should test hardness, pH, iron, manganese, maybe sulfate, and maybe some others. A more complex but effective system is a chlorine injector (often bleach solution), settling/contact tank, and finally a backwashing activated charcoal filter to remove the stuff precipitated out by the chlorine plus the remaining chlorine. A simple Big Blue 20 inch by 4.5 inch filter or two might help some iron, but it is not going to be as effective or convenient as a backwashing filter. Plus you would be buying cartridges. If you do install such a filter housing, allow that you might later get a backwashing filter. Figure to have the housing after the backwashing filter. It will have very little to catch once the backwashing filter is in, but it might catch a little bit. My point is that the backwashing filter goes first after the pressure tank.
You want to see if you can find something like Super Iron Out. Even if you get a nice system, you would use that to clean what crud remains from before your new system gets operational.