Hi. Today on Repairs101 I’m going to do a little something about valves.
Ubiquitous
So now this was actually a really difficult video to shoot because the more I thought about valves the more I realized — it’s really quite amazing — they’re everywhere. Plus the more I thought about all the different kinds of valves. These are valves. There’s a valve in there. Those are valves. Here’s a valve. [Flushes] That’s a valve.
Here’s three valves that are all essentially the same the only thing different is the plastic cap. There’s another valve right here. So this little object is an adapter for my high pressure compression tester. Now the reason I’m showing you this, in this particular case is to show you the valve in the end of it.
Schrader valve
This funny looking, seemingly broken screwdriver — you might think that you have a broken screwdriver on your hands if you have one of these but in fact it’s a Schrader valve remover. It just goes in there like that, and then it’s threaded so it just spins right on out. OK so that’s what a Schrader valve looks like. Pretty cool, eh? Now if you think you recognize the Schrader valve — and if you think it looks familiar — you’re right. [Hisses]
Engine valves
Here’s some valves out of an engine. And this one has still got the valve guide on it. Now this monster here this is a thermostat for very large diesel engines and just like the little tiny Schrader valve it’s dropped into a pipe or a passageway and it blocks it and then when it’s activated by this wax slug in the back here the gap opens here and the fluid is able to wash in past it.
Ball valve
Now a ball valve is exactly that, it’s a valve that operates by turning a ball inside of a passageway. As you can see, there’s a ball valve right there. So that’s what a ball valve looks like. OK so here’s a regulator and it is a ball valve. And here it comes around the other side, there we go.
So that’s a ball valve. So now this one’s called a “pet-cock”. This is the kind of thing you’ll find as a drain on the bottom of your car’s radiator. Pardon the pun but your garden variety garden tap. It’s a classic stem valve. It’s a classic stem valve it has a flat bushing rather than the domed one you might have seen in my other video.
Gate valve
OK so here’s a half inch gate valve. And the gate valve’s pretty good. I’ll just… OK so here we have another kind of gate valve. Check it out on this one the gate swings from side to side. There’s another small one: there it’s another small gate valve. Close the gate, open the gate again. And yet another kind of gate valve, as you can see on this one the gate’s swung open. See up in the top corner here the gate is swung down and open, to let the floodgate open. This little baby’s a three quarter inch check valve.
Check valves
And a check valve is a one way passage. You can see there’s a flapper valve inside so fluid can flow through — in the direction of the arrow very easily — but can’t flow in the other direction. There’s your flapper right there. This is a grease needle with a grease nipple on the end. You see there is a check valve installed in the end of the grease nipple. It’s just a ball bearing with a tiny little spring behind it. Poke it and release it and there should be a little grease come out of it. There, you see that? I got a little grease out of it.
So there’s another kind of check valve, the ball bearing check valve. I’m not going to open it because I want to be able to identify it and identify its part number. There you go another ball bearing check valve. The hose would slip on here and you’d have it attached to your fuel can and when you disconnect it of course you don’t want the fuel coming out.
The spring will push the ball bearing and make a seal on the end. It’s also a check valve.
Joker
It’s called a Joker valve. And what’s really interesting about it is — aside from the fact that it’s made out of rubber and just has sort of an elastic memory that allows material to pass through this way but of course resists passage of material through this way — and what’s interesting about it of course is that it’s very, very similar in design to the Tricuspid, Aortic and Pulmonary valves. Tricuspid — this is a tricuspid: three points — Aortic and Pulmonary valves in your heart. They are essentially the same kind of design. Except instead of hard rubber with an elastic memory your heart valves of course are made of dynamic living tissue.
