hello again. i was trying to remove my thetford caravan fridge to try the upside down thing to agetate the amonias . however i cant release the 17mm gas nut . it wont budge. can anyone give me any tips on how to get this nut to crack. thanks
You can also try tapping the nut with a small and light panel pin hammer, supporting the opposite side of the nut on a small but heavy metal mallet. Sometimes this will help release the threads. Dont hammer hard enough to distort the nut though.
------------- cramming for my finals in the twilight zone
tried the 2 spanners , maybey its not 17mm wonder if it could be imperial size nut. tried turning the van upside down but the wife kept hitting her head on the roof, and my arms got sore.
Quote: Originally posted by parkranger on 20/9/2012
tried the 2 spanners , maybey its not 17mm wonder if it could be imperial size nut. tried turning the van upside down but the wife kept hitting her head on the roof, and my arms got sore.
answer to that is get the wife to do it.
try tightening it a bit first sometimes that will help to free things off
Have you considered that they may be left hand threads as some gas fittings are. In other words you have to turn the spanners in the opposite direction to undo the locking nuts. Also try a spray of penetrating fluid such as WD40 as this should help to release the locking nuts as well.
I have been doing a little research on this Jeff but it appears that the only left hand thread application on gas fittings is only at the regulator to gas cylinder connection so possibly the gas union that the OP is trying to undo actually appears to be a right hand thread.
I didn't have to unscrew the gas when I did that to mine, was fitted to a flexi pipe so could take out and turn upside down with it connected (and turned off at the bottle)
Worst paet was putting it back in place and keeping all the wires and cables out of the way, took ages of fiddleing lol
The threads are NOT left hand. Use two CORRECTLY FITTING SPANNERS,avoid adjustables if you can.Support the fitting on a piece of wood or something and pull the spanners against each other. It WILL loosen. You can as suggested gently tap the nut WHILST SUPPORTING,this will help. Be confident. Good luck
because of the size of the appeture behind the fridge vent its difficult to get 2 spanners in at the same time.and to fet some torque into it. thinking about cutting gaspipe on fridge end, and blanking gas pipe before re installing thats if the upside down thing works, prices quoted for new fridge are criminal, there must be someone out there who can repair these friges. if not what an oppertunity for someone
You could cut the pipe and buy another compression fitting from a caravan dealer, but the fitting shouldn't be that tight you cannot undo it with two spanners.
You say you have tried using two 17mm spanners. The next size down is 5/8" AF or 16mm. Both are almost identical in size. 11/16" AF is slightly bigger than 17mm.
I find that in confined spaces, it is better to fit the spanners to the nuts so that they are at a very small angle to each other and squeeze the spanners together rather than having them at a greater angle and losing energy through twisting the pipe.