Joe wrote:
On Sep 24, 11:47 am, Henry wrote:

Hi, I have an old cast iron radiator that is leaking
between the sections. The joints are cone shaped, male
and female, but the sealing takes place at the base of
the cone which has a flat area about 1/4" wide. Two
5/8" threaded rods hold the 7 sections together. I've had
them apart four times and they still seep. First I used
permatex form a gasket by itself. Then I used the same
stuff in combination with hand cut 1/32" thick gasket
material. Then I used silicone gasket maker with the
hand cut gasket material. My plumber says they can't be
repaired and it needs to be replaced, but I'm not ready
to give up yet - damn close, though. After all, it was
put together once before and didn't leak for decades. I've
heard that jb weld works, but if I use that and it still
leaks, I might not be able to get it apart again. The fellow
at the local plumbing supply store suggested using candle
wick, yarn, or twine with the permatex or silicone instead
of the 1/32" gasket material, theory being that the twine
will conform to irregularities in the sealing surface better
than a uniform thickness gasket. The fit is not precise, and
assembly without any silicone reveals gaps almost 1/16"
wide in some places. Oddly, that is not where it leaked,
though. Unless I get a better suggestion here, I'll try the
twine and silicone.

Did you get the sections back together in the right order? If in
doubt. mark them and try the fit for different orders. One sequence
may show promise and could lead to proper sealing.

Joe

It didn't occur to me that the order might matter until I
went to assemble it for the fifth time, and I noticed that
I had trouble getting the 5/8" threaded rod through the holes
and that two of the sections didn't want to go together. So,
I dry assembled it trying different orders until I got the
best fit and alignment.
After trying permatex number one flexible with and without
gaskets, silicone with gaskets, and permatex number two
hard setting with twine instead of gaskets - all without
getting it to seal, I decided to use JB Weld without gaskets.
It's not leaking now and I don't think it will. If another
one ever develops a leak, I will definitely *not* take it
apart. I'll drain the system, clean up the area around the
leak and try to seal it from the outside with JB weld. No,
this is not an advertisement. ;-)
Thanks for the replies.
Henry


--

http://911research.wtc7.net
http://www.journalof911studies.com/
http://www.ae911truth.org