The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Heater Control Valve Spray Gasket?

For those of you who've rebuilt your heater control valve, did you use copper spray gasket as shown at the bottom of pages 7 and 8 of this excellent Ranco H16 Control Valve Rebuild Guide?

I've seen the photographs a couple of members have posted, but nowhere did they discuss this spray gasket.

Comments appreciated.

Bill

Permatex High Temperature Copper Gasket Sealer is really meant to aid in heat transfer
as in a head gasket rather than just using a plain gasket sealer which would insulate to
some degree.
I see no reason why it or any gasket sealer would be necessary in the Ranco valve
unless there was a lot of corrosion at its seat, in which case I would look for another
valve.
But if you feel you needed a gasket sealer I would think that Permatex #2 would be just as
good or maybe even one of the silicone gasket makers.
Also mentioned in the article is lubricating with Lubriplate. That's a lithium grease and
tends to dry out in a few years. I would use a conventional lubricant such as chassis
grease or oil which ever is appropriate.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks for weighing in, Denny.

Lithium grease? No way. I already tried that on my HCV, and now I get the not-so-fun job of cleaning the gunk out.

I'm going to hit the staked ring with some Permatex #2 for insurance.

One observation: my plunger doesn't have near enough travel to seal off the flow between tubes. The only way I'd have enough travel is if the valve stem goes all the way into the tube without the diaphragm installed.

I have it back together again. My plunger closes the flow to about half. Seems weird. I risk ripping the diaphragm if I want it to close more.

What does the screw on the rocker adjust?

Bill

These Ranco valves are not known as the best shut off valve ever made. I don't think they
really did a whole bunch of controlling of the temperature and I don't think they actually
did shut the water flow off completely. I think they were really meant to roughly control
the temperature and in the warmer weather when you didn’t need the heat you could use
the inline shut off valve to kill the flow to the heater core.

Alvin completely unsoldered one of these a while back and can tell you just how good of
a seal the valve made. I’ve never taken one down to that level but I did notice that mine
didn’t seem to close off the flow all the way either.

DG

Thanks, Denny.

Any idea what that adjustment screw (on the rocker, under the thermo-coil) does? When I crank it in, the cable operated arm gets tight, so I loosened it. Seems arbitrary. What does it do?

Bill

Sorry Bill, been a few years since I messed with those so I don't really remember but I'm sure it would be some sort of ballance adjustmet so that the valve is closed when it need to be and open when its set for heat.
Maybe someone with some first hand knowlage will jump in and set us straight.
DG

I recently repaired the leaking valve in my daughter's truck. I didn't use any sort of sealant - just put it back together like it came apart. It worked great for 57 years, so I figure it's good for a few more. The whole job only took a couple hours.

Mike