Help with Front Runner water tank

[garygiles1963]

HI

I need some help and advice with a Front Runner water tank.

The metal shut off valve that screws in the tank, just keeps turning, so not giving a 100% seal. Seems like a bad design to me, metal on plastic. I have put the sealant tape round the threads, but not helped.

I need a solution to best seal and stop the valve from turning.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
Gary

 

[SteveJB]

Can only suggest taking it apart again take the fittings to understanding plumbers shop they may have better fittings or a sealant that could do the job

 

[garygiles1963]

Hi

Thanks,

You think the white bit where the valve is screwed into should come out? If so do you think it is screwed in or pushed in and sealed?

G.

 

[David]

On crop sprayer tanks we use a fitting like the one in the pic and never leak all it has is a rubber washer on the inside and we never use any sealant

 

[Chris]

I have one of those tanks and the bit that is in the tank wall isn't supposed to move. The tap screws in but I think, (I can check tomorrow) that it's a tapered thread. So it shouldn't be overtightened. Taper threads are funny things. Best thing is to empty it, dry it off and see what's what.

 

[nick_the_fish]

Gary I hate to say this but are you sure you screwed in the correct thread? Some photos of mine below. I had a brass thread that was sightly smaller than the others in the pack that I screwed in until it just nipped up. The valve then sits further down the line (however that was just my understanding of it and could be wrong). Unfortunately the trick is not to over tighten it in the first place. Does the tank have an inspection hatch? Can you reach inside to replace the white bung in the tank wall?

 

[Chris]

Mine looks the same as Gary's. I think over tightening might have been the cause.

 

[garygiles1963]

HI

I may well have over tightened it, if that is the case it was very easy to do.

I think it would be better for Front runner to supply the tank with a sealed adaptor that looks something like Nicks pics which to slide the pipe onto and then add the shut off valve.

Thanks for your suggestions I will check later today.

G.

 

[Chris]

Either way it should be entirely possible to fix this. Fiddly maybe but possible. I did something similar on my new water tanks. Pass a wire through the hole and up through the filler. Slide the inside ring over the wire to run it to the hole. Then screw the new outer gland on from the outside. One the rubber gasket contacted the inside wall of the tank I was able to screw it up tight. There's a wide variety of fixtures available. Some with threads, some push fit etc.

 

[garygiles1963]

Thanks Chris.

 

[StarCruiser]

On Chris’s fix. I was thinking old school brass tank connector but that is the push fit version.
A sealant that’s very useful if left to set is LSX made by Fernox. It looks and smells like clear silicone. Not sure if there’s any difference but even adding it to PTFE taped threads is useful. Using Gas PTFE is also good as it’s much thicker and needs only a few turns.
You could also try using a tapered thread if what you have used is a parallel thread. This will tighten up into an oversized or stripped plastic thread. Depends on what’s there really as I’m not familiar with it.

Chris’s /David’s fix is best.