Hello all. Have a probably pretty common occurrence , so I thought I would bring this question here. My supply shutoff is really old, maybe 40 years old according to a neighbor. Anyway, the packing is more than likely gone in it and it has leaked since I moved in in 2012. I went down in my basement and noticed the drip spot and then the leaky shutoff. I had considered trying to cut and replace on the fly with 60 psi of water coming into the house, but chickened out and my idea was to tighten down the packing nut and then fully open the valve. After lightly wrenching the handle to the fully open position and also lightly wrenching the packing nut tighter, the leak had stopped.
Fast forward to now...
I installed a brand new Navien boiler and wanted to install a water softener to help with scaling, etc... well...., in order to install the water softener I had to shut the water off to stab in and in doing so, I restarted the leak from my previous troubles. I am not a plumber by trade, so I was a little afraid of doing the packing on the fly because I imagined the valve shooting right out of its seat after removing the packing nut. I spoke with a coworker and he told me that you could probably do it live with little issue. So, I tackled it tonight and it worked ...well, sort of. After putting a small strand of packing around the stem and retightening the nut, the nut split slightly and protruded upward. I will include a picture to show what I am working with, but long story short I will now ask my question.
Is there a replacement supply nut that works with my shutoff valve? I am using a 19mm wrench on the nut, so that means it is 3/4" and it almost looks like the stem is 1/4"
Fast forward to now...
I installed a brand new Navien boiler and wanted to install a water softener to help with scaling, etc... well...., in order to install the water softener I had to shut the water off to stab in and in doing so, I restarted the leak from my previous troubles. I am not a plumber by trade, so I was a little afraid of doing the packing on the fly because I imagined the valve shooting right out of its seat after removing the packing nut. I spoke with a coworker and he told me that you could probably do it live with little issue. So, I tackled it tonight and it worked ...well, sort of. After putting a small strand of packing around the stem and retightening the nut, the nut split slightly and protruded upward. I will include a picture to show what I am working with, but long story short I will now ask my question.
Is there a replacement supply nut that works with my shutoff valve? I am using a 19mm wrench on the nut, so that means it is 3/4" and it almost looks like the stem is 1/4"