I am working on an issue with no wax going to 3 bays. Said bays work fine on presoak, wax, tire cleaner. I had a nasty separated mess in the vat and hydrominder of the wax so I suspect gunk. I've never worked with the fittings that are used for the tubing from solenoid manifold to block at main inlet. The block has standard push fittings but at the solenoid its some contraption with a big thumb wheel at the top for each line. Hoping someone can explain how this works and how to take the line off for inspection? TIA
Manifold fittings soap/wax/etc
- Thread starter KFPanda
- Start date
DiamondWash
Well-known member
Posting pictures can help with this dilemma.
MEP001
Well-known member
Those are GC solenoids. I would bet the solenoids are clogged with stuff separated out from the wax, or the seats have swollen and they can't open. It could also be a fault in the common wire that jumpers to all the solenoids. If it breaks or corrodes through, nothing past the break will work. Start by checking the solenoids with a screwdriver to see if they're even energizing. A small blade held right above the coil will be pulled to it when it's powered.
They can be a huge pain to take apart sometimes. Use a Sharpie to draw a line across the center inside the knurled nut, then when you're turning it you can see if the stem is turning with it. The stem shouldn't turn with the nut. Sometimes prying gently under the coil while you turn the nut will work, but sometimes you need to take a Dremel and cut a groove in the stem for a screwdriver to hold it from turning.
They can be a huge pain to take apart sometimes. Use a Sharpie to draw a line across the center inside the knurled nut, then when you're turning it you can see if the stem is turning with it. The stem shouldn't turn with the nut. Sometimes prying gently under the coil while you turn the nut will work, but sometimes you need to take a Dremel and cut a groove in the stem for a screwdriver to hold it from turning.
Greg Pack
Wash Weenie
Is this a coleman pump stand? If so, the thumbwheel you describe is a needle valve and those are compression type fittings.
You could indeed have the system gunked up and it would need cleaning out. I'd drain the tank and clean the filter and refill with a good strong solution of wax-like a red trip on a hydrominder.
A quick hack is to try to suck the gunk out of the lines. Have someone turn on the wax and pull the trigger on the gun in the affected bay . Starve the pump for water by slowly closing off the water supply valve until the pump gets noisy. This will create a vacuum on the chemical line and it may suck out the gunk. Just do that for a short period of time-15 seconds or so. If it starts working you'll see wax come out.
I remove the needle valves because most everyone runs them wide open anyway and replace them with standard fittings. Just one less thing to fool with.
You can use a wire coat hanger to clean gunk out of the poly lines or just replace them.
A final thing I've had to do is to disassemble the solenoid and shave the plunger seat with a razor blade. Some products can make that seat swell and it will not open enough to provide flow.
You could indeed have the system gunked up and it would need cleaning out. I'd drain the tank and clean the filter and refill with a good strong solution of wax-like a red trip on a hydrominder.
A quick hack is to try to suck the gunk out of the lines. Have someone turn on the wax and pull the trigger on the gun in the affected bay . Starve the pump for water by slowly closing off the water supply valve until the pump gets noisy. This will create a vacuum on the chemical line and it may suck out the gunk. Just do that for a short period of time-15 seconds or so. If it starts working you'll see wax come out.
I remove the needle valves because most everyone runs them wide open anyway and replace them with standard fittings. Just one less thing to fool with.
You can use a wire coat hanger to clean gunk out of the poly lines or just replace them.
A final thing I've had to do is to disassemble the solenoid and shave the plunger seat with a razor blade. Some products can make that seat swell and it will not open enough to provide flow.
MEP001
Well-known member
Yes, the thumbwheel could be needle valves. They usually don't have them, but sometimes they do. It's quite a pain in the ass to remove them. Hopefully it's just the aluminum nut that holds the coil on.
Thanks for the info! I wish I had seen your post before I messed with the needle valves, almost broke one but figured out what they were. All the 90 deg fittings for each one I didn't want to mess with them if I didn't have to. Pulling the lines off they seemed pretty good buildup wise, nice flow from gravity tank so check that off. I had some stems/plungers from foam brush that were gunked up so I cleaned those up today and went to swap them as needed. 1 is at the top 6 on bottom. I pulled off coils to 1 and 2 and tested, both are firing. I have access to the stems now with a small wrench, so I pull off #1, 2 healthy streams, one blue from mixing tank one clear from grav. Check plunger, not stuck and looks normal. Stem back on. Remove stem #2, also good 2 nice streams but immediately see plunger looks like might be swollen as you described. Swapped plunger replace stem and 2 coils. Both bays now have wax. No clue what I did to #1. #3 had a car in it I'll look at it tomorrow probably. I did note the plunger itself is different from the others I've seen. Thanks again for all the input guys, absolute lifesavers!
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Greg Pack
Wash Weenie
yeah both those plungers in the picture need to be shaved off and cleaned. I'm not sure the one on the right is salvageable. I use a fresh razor blade, I do not recommend a razor knife blade.
The socket you want to work on those solenoids is a 13mm deep well. It was the only metric tool I carried in my bag before I got a European automatic.
The socket you want to work on those solenoids is a 13mm deep well. It was the only metric tool I carried in my bag before I got a European automatic.
