seacocks

[capthook505]

So today I took apart my strainers to clean them out and I re opened my seacocks to let any water in them to drop on the ground. Well my starboard seacock was a little stiff and in giving the extra effort the handle broke along with the lock nut and threads and the seacock stem itself chipped.:\ They are original 1976, on a 36c with chris craft/marine power 454's. My question is has anyone replaced these, how much of a job is it, and will the apollo seacocks they sell at west marine fit in the same holes? (They look pretty close to what I have). Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Passages]

Though I have not done it, if it were me I'd plan on replacing both. Buy the best replacement seacocks you can find and begin disassembly of the old. You've no choice. If you get stuck, call the yard mechanic.

Seacocks are not to be taken lightly. They must function when needed to avoid having a really bad day.

[davesommers]

The apollos are acceptable and I have used them in the past on various boats. I think there is one for my head intake in the hat. You may want to look at the groco units with the safety seacock feature for future ease of winterizing or flushing your engines. they work well in my 36. Buy the best once and you wont be surprised later.

The hardest part of the job will be removal of the original units. If they do not unscrew, which is likely, you will have to grind off the outside portion of the thru hull. I have also had luck using a hacksaw to carefully saw off the head of the thru hull. The bronze used is fairly easy to cut thru and this method works well if you can avoid hacking into the glass work.

The hole size in the hull will be fairly close and can be taken up with 5200 or the like if slightly too large or rasped out easily if too small.

If the engine seacocks are shot, what about the rest of them? Don't skimp as they will sink your boat...

[nonchalant]

I have seen a new type (Groco i believe) that has an extra valve you can open if there is a catastrophic leak in the boat and it uses the engine water pump as a huge bilge pump to get water out fast. May be worth looking into.

[BEC53]

Bought a 49' Gulfstar MY new in 1983. Good heavily built boat with high quality components, but it had those black plastic seacocks. No through hull fittings as it had a seachest strainer. Anyway, one of those seacocks broke and it was very difficult to replace. Moral of the story--Don't buy cheap seacocks.

[capthook505]

Thanks all, for the response, I have some resaerch to do, and I sure do not want to use Junk.

[jim rosenthal]

..will fit in pretty much like OEM. Some of the replacement seacocks from Sam's are made by them, I believe. I had to replace my AC through-hull and seacock recently and to my astonishment and delight the old one came out with very little trouble. And the holes lined up with a new Apollo.
A bonus; if you install all the new hardware, and one day after everything is in spray it with Corrosion Block a few times, after a year it will still look like bronze and be shiny!!!! Wish I had done that with my engine through-hulls and seacocks when I put them in.