Genesis 1000 Interchangeable Manifold?


 
Flip the manifold over and let it sit for a while. Any excess penetrant should run back out. Clean it all off and you should be good to go.
 
THyde said:
I'd also do a soap bubble test on that valve if it was me. Just spray some soapy water on it and make sure there are no bubbles. This way you would be able to detect any gas leaks. Also, if you don't already, I would definitely shut off the gas at the source for that grill, I guess in this case I would close the propane tank when I wasn't using the grill. But if you've got PB blaster cleaning out the inside of the valve, I don't think that's going to cause a huge problem. Like bruce said though, there are a great many varieties of better tasting wet rubs than PB!
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Would the soap test be performed on the valve stem itself, after connecting propane and opening the propane valve?

Then should the valve stem show no bubbles while both in the open position and the closed position?
 
LMichaels said:
Honestly I would try to disassemble it and do it right
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I would too but if it was only the stem causing the binding then the cone might be fine in there. Then again, it might not. That’s why I am suggesting the soap bubble test, it’s free and a great leak check.
 
Anything running on gas should never bubble anywhere in any position, from anywhere, or at any time - that would be evidence of a gas leak.
 
Yah, he has having issues getting the screws out. But maybe with the additional work to free up the valve, the screws have finally loosened up to the point they will come out before they strip out.
 
THyde said:
I would too but if it was only the stem causing the binding then the cone might be fine in there. Then again, it might not. That’s why I am suggesting the soap bubble test, it’s free and a great leak check.
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I don't think a valve full of PBlaster is a good thing. It's not meant for lubricating
 
LMichaels said:
I don't think a valve full of PBlaster is a good thing. It's not meant for lubricating
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I agree.

There is a mix of acetone and ATF you can make which is a true penetrating oil, I would mix some of that up and put it on the screws then try to disassemble the valve to have a real look. But I stand by the soap test at a minimum to use that manifold.

The absolute solution to this one would be to find a donor grill with a good manifold and a “rest of grill” so crappy that it truly is a parts grill, making it possible to just discard the manifold in question. But I’m not doing any of this so I can only offer ideas.
 
My solution to getting the valves apart was a thin Dremel cutting disk in a Dremel tool that I had worn down to a small (basically used up) diameter. I used it to deepen one of the phillips grooves in each screw so that I could get good contact and extract the screw with a small flat-bladed screwdriver. I did necessarily nick the valve body a bit, but not in any way that makes any difference. I also reinstalled the screws using the flat-bladed screwdriver. I had the valves out of the manifold and in a vice.
 
With winter over and the temps getting warmer, I started back with a Genesis 2 that is in nice shape that I picked up for 50 dollars. Because I like servicing the valves, I got pretty anxious when I looked at the 6 rusted screw heads on the 3 valves. However, with good contact with a Philipps driver, all six screws were easily removed and I was able to service the valves. I was truly surprised and felt really lucky. I had to go through the headache of frozen screws on valves before.
 
Bruce said:
Yah, he has having issues getting the screws out. But maybe with the additional work to free up the valve, the screws have finally loosened up to the point they will come out before they strip out.
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I was able to get the left screw out, but unfortunately the right screw is stripped.

I do have a drill press, so not sure if that's an option to drill it out.
 
John-NY said:
I was able to get the left screw out, but unfortunately the right screw is stripped.

I do have a drill press, so not sure if that's an option to drill it out.
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Drilling it out is certainly an option. You want to use a reverse-twisted drill bit for this operation and run the drill press in reverse. That way, any torque you apply to the screw will be in the direction of loosening it up and pulling it out.

There are also various specialty bits available for automotive-type work that are designed to engage and pull out a stuck screw. I am not sure that you could find one this small however.
Absolute worst case is if you do actually have to drill away the old screw completely. Then, you would still get the valve apart, but you would need to locate new hardware to reassemble it. In that case, I would look at a new bolt with an external nut on the other end before I worried about re-threading the original hole to a larger size or using some type of a re-threading kit in there.
 
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John-NY said:
I was able to get the left screw out, but unfortunately the right screw is stripped.

I do have a drill press, so not sure if that's an option to drill it out.
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That's exactly what I was hoping for you to avoid happening. If you had it at a point where it was working properly, it was time to stop. I've taken these valves apart before myself only to realize that when they get stuck it's usually because the stem no longer rotates/ moves up and down freely externally. It's usually not because there is anything wrong inside the valve itself. I've also learned ( the hard way) that you only have a 50/50 chance of successfully taking a valve apart and reassembling it without stripping out a screw.
 
Scott Smith said:
Drilling it out is certainly an option. You want to use a reverse-twisted drill bit for this operation and run the drill press in reverse. That way, any torque you apply to the screw will be in the direction of loosening it up and pulling it out.

There are also various specialty bits available for automotive-type work that are designed to engage and pull out a stuck screw. I am not sure that you could find one this small however.
Absolute worst case is if you do actually have to drill away the old screw completely. Then, you would still get the valve apart, but you would need to locate new hardware to reassemble it. In that case, I would look at a new bolt with an external nut on the other end before I worried about re-threading the original hole to a larger size or using some type of a re-threading kit in there.
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Rather than drill through the entire screw, you can also pick a drill that is large enough to remove just the screw head (IOW, a bit that is slightly larger than the screw diameter). The bonnet will then come off and also relieve the tension on the screw and leave enough of the screw sticking out that it should come out easily. Clamp everything up on your drill press and set your depth stop accordingly so you don't go too deep.
 
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Sorry to hear you stripped it John. Wish I had read this thread earlier. For those others with this dilemma, “patience” is your friend. It took me applying PB blaster twice a day for a week to get those screws to loosen up but I did it without stripping them. I replaced the steel screws with brass ones and applied never seize to them in case I ever have to remove them again.
 
Richard in NS said:
Sorry to hear you stripped it John. Wish I had read this thread earlier. For those others with this dilemma, “patience” is your friend. It took me applying PB blaster twice a day for a week to get those screws to loosen up but I did it without stripping them. I replaced the steel screws with brass ones and applied never seize to them in case I ever have to remove them again.
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The goal here is to not create more work for yourself. I didn't think I had a problem loosening my screws either, but still ended up stripping one out by either taking it out or putting it back in, not sure. Richard is 100% right that patience is a virtue in this case.
 
Ed P said:
Rather than drill through the entire screw, you can also pick a drill that is large enough to remove just the screw head (IOW, a bit that is slightly larger than the screw diameter). The bonnet will then come off and also relieve the tension on the screw and leave enough of the screw sticking out that it should come out easily. Clamp everything up on your drill press and set your depth stop accordingly so you don't go too deep.
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Ed, if you're smart enough to fix this problem then you're probably smart enough to not let it happen in the first place. I think the good advice here is to not encourage people to just take their valves apart to clean them. It's just not that simple in a lot of climates. I'm certainly no genius, but I do learn from my mistakes. You're taking a chance disassembling the valves on your manifold that may not be worth the risk. Soak them down with a penetrant and clean them off with a wire brush. That will take care of 90% of the problems without causing more work or the expense of another manifold.
 
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