Rain bird valve issues

[Rlachaus]

I have a Rainbird valve with a brand new solenoid, flow control screw, and bleed valve screw. When I turn the solenoid (about 180 degrees), no water comes out of the sprinklers. It seems the only way to turn the valve on is using the flow control screw. The bleed valve will only turn on the valve if the flow control screw is about middle. I checked the solenoid and it’s good. I cleaned out the diaphragm and it’s all good. I just can’t manually turn on the valve nor can I get it to work with the program timer. Neither via manual or timer will produce the normal sound of “umph” one usually hears when the valve turns on. I only hear this when the flow control is used to turn it on. Any ideas what’s going on? I spent two weekends trying to get this valve to work

 

[WorthFlorida]

The bleed valve will only turn on the valve if the flow control screw is about middle.I checked the solenoid and it’s good. I cleaned out the diaphragm and it’s all good. I just can’t manually turn on the valve nor can I get it to work with the program timer.

I never dealt with a flow control valve so this will be my educated guess. When the flow control is about in the middle where it works with the bleed screw, will it work with the solenoid? From your description, It seems the valve will not work at all regardless of the flow control setting

If this is an old valve and you only replaced the solenoid, I suspecting the diaphragm is bad. Over time they can get hard and where you can adjust the flow control to work with the bleed screw, the pressure could be too low for full operation of the flow. If you haven't seen this video it may show the problem. I could not find one for flow control but I think the stem of the flow control pushes agains the diaphragm to limit how far it can open. As you can see flexibility of the diaphram is crucial.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Rlachaus]

Thanks. There’s a new diaphragm in it.

 

[Rlachaus]

Thanks. There’s a new diaphragm in it.

Here’s a video

Rain bird valve issue