Please Help Me Save This Part

[lesrhorer]

Steel anything in a water system sounds like rust to me.

Do I understand correctly? The red part is stationary in service and the blue part rotates around it?
If that is correct, why is there no plastic washer (or other thrust bearing) between the blue and black parts?

There is a plastic washer between them. Nylon, I think. So there is a plastic thrust bearing on each end. 'Not the best bearings in the world, but then the spout only rotates about 90 degrees, at a fraction of an RPM, and only a hew times a day.

Steel embedded epoxy (like JB Weld) doesn't rust, because the steel is well embedded in the epoxy matrix. In any case. no water reaches the lower block, unless the faucet is leaking due to an O-Ring failure. In that case, the faucet would be repaired.

 

[lesrhorer]

I tried the o-ring, and by itself it does not work, but only because the brass piece backs out when the spout is turned to the left. I put a little Loctite 242 on the threads, and it seems to be working just great. The action of the spout is smooth as silk, and there is no appreciable lift when handling the spout. Thanks everyone who commented!

 

[lesrhorer]

Actually, looking at how it assembles, I'm guessing that you thread the stem in until the faucet swing feels right and compresses the top washer enough to prevent excessive leaking. I'd just throw another rubber o-ring on the bottom (might help with bottom leaks). The faucet body itself is going to do a good job limiting flex, and even if you fill the gap/mistake there would still be some clearance between it and the base so you can set the faucet swing feel.

No, the top washer does not seal the system, at all. Its only purpose is as a bearing to allow the spout to turn freely without wearing the metal. Ordinarily, the unit screws down until the brass contacts the lower piece and is then tightened enough to prevent movement of the brass piece. Actually, I think the original piece was assembled with some sort of thread-locker, because the piece broke when a worker was trying to unscrew it, and it took a lot of heat and a lot of torque to extract the broken fragment.

The water enters from the bottom of the brass fitting, up through the center and into the circumferential galleries. The galleries are in between the two o-rings, which prevent water from reaching any other part of the system other than the spout.

I added the O-rings (green) and the bottom washer (white) for clarity.

 

[OTmachine]

You will most definitely need heat, (approximately 325 deg. F) to break that 242 loose.

 

[lesrhorer]

You will most definitely need heat, (approximately 325 deg. F) to break that 242 loose.

Or risk the brass piece breaking, again, yeah. The brass won't mind 325F, and the rest - other than the O-rings, of course - is stainless steel, 'Shouldn't be an issue, altghough I don't expect to ever have to disassemble it.