Supply shut off fail

[Sponger76]

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"

 

[Dj2]

Do you want to sleep well at night?
If yes, replace the valve.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

There is a type of valve used for incoming water service that you can remove or loosen the packing nut if the valve is fully open. I forget what that kind of valve is called. I don't know if your valve is one of those.

The city can shut off your water while you get the valve replaced. I think some plumbers operate the city valve themselves.

 

[Sponger76]

Lol, great point guys. I do want to sleep at night. I was hoping that there was a replacement nut that would take the place of the broken one. I also intended in replacing the valve when the ground thawed out, IF I could wait that long that is.

 

[Reach4]

Lol, great point guys. I do want to sleep at night. I was hoping that there was a replacement nut that would take the place of the broken one. I also intended in replacing the valve when the ground thawed out, IF I could wait that long that is.

Put a bucket under the valve to catch the drips. If that becomes too much bother to empty, rig up a funnel to a hose to a floor drain.

Think maybe June if you can wait, but even April looks decent 2 to 5 ft down. This graph is from https://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/EarthTemperatures.htm

 

[Sponger76]

Thank you for this info. It currently doesn't leak with the new packing rope in it. I could gamble and never replace it, but I am not risking all the new components that I have down in the basement for a little savings on work and/or money. I might be able to make it to june or so if I leave it undisturbed. Kind of annoying that you cant find a standard replacement packing nut. There is no name on this valve that I can visibly see, though maybe on the backside there might be something. In the picture below there is a raised up T on the side of the body, but that doesn't help much.

 

[Gsmith22]

reach4's graph is for Virginia and looks like you are in NY. The overall graphical trend will be the same but the number scale will be different (ie it will be lower/colder) for your area. this link might work better for you:

http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=soil-temperature-map

I highly doubt you would have to wait till June for unfrozen ground. Its been a warm winter anyway but you would probably be fine in April to go digging outside

No one else mentioned it but ball valves are far better for a water service shut off. Not sure if you have a gate or globe valve there, but I have replaced all of my valves with ball valves. The only situation where a ball valve would be less ideal is one where the valve was used to vary the water flow - much harder to do that with a ball valve.

 

[Sponger76]

Thanks gsmith22. In my case, the valve is a globe valve and it was (most likely) the original for the house when the town began running water lines. Previously the house had well water. My coworker is from the area (technically 1 street over from me) and he said they ran all the water to my street about 40 years ago. If I was doing a fresh install, I would go with a ball valve without question. When the time comes and I can shut the street valve off, I will make that switch. In fact, when I moved in, I had mentioned to my wife that I hated globe valves and that one day I would be replacing it with a ball valve.
Also, in my area, my water shut off has a riser ( I am pretty sure it is a normal scenario for this) that isn't to far below grade. So unless you guys feel that operating my shut off valve with the ground semi frozen is bad, I might be able to unearth the riser and get this shut off even earlier than April. Though I don't like the cold and will still probably wait for warmer weather anyway.

In any case, I will be monitoring my valve regularly and if it springs a leak, I may have to change it on the fly no matter what. I will get wet, and it will probably be difficult, but in that even, I will slide a sharkbite ball valve on the pipe after cutting the globe valve out. Last and absolute worst case scenario. I had pictured putting a couple of thick poly bags over the plumbing to reduce just how far the water would spray out and then I figured it would basically be me doing this blindly from that point on. Anyway, again, last case scenario.

 

[James Henry]

Their is a 99% chance you will never find a packing nut for a valve that old. The best thing you could do is investigate how your going to replace the valve and purchase all the material and put it aside for an emergency.

 

[Fitter30]

If you would of tried changing the the valve hot it probably would of blown out of your hand and trying to get the new valve on 23 gallon + a minute. You would look like a soggy doggy and water would be everywhere if you could get a valve back on.

 

[JerryR]

I’d probably give a plumber a call and have him replace that valve, possibly with a ball valve. Otherwise you’re risking a catastrophe.

When I moved into our current home, which was 19 years old, I had a plumber install a quality ball valve for the main cut off. It wasn’t very expensive.

We shut the water off to the house with that valve any time we leave the house unoccupied overnight. We routinely travel at least 4 times a month between main home and vacation cabin and we turn off water at either house just before leaving to go to other house, for even 1 day.

At the vacation cabin I have well water. I turn off the breakers to the well pump and water softener when leaving. At the main home I simply turn the ball valve shut off the 1/4 turn.

I also turn off the breaker to the electric hot water heater anytime the water it turned off.

 

[Gsmith22]

There is absolutely no chance that you are replacing that valve with water on. The only way that valve gets replaced is by shutting off the water to the house. Think fire hose directed at you while trying to screw in new valve. Flooding whatever room this is in will be guaranteed and then that will only stop when you shut the water off from the outside. So might as just shut the water off from the outside first.