Irrigation is now going

I got my irrigation problem fixed today.  I am glad I waited till today to fix the problems as it took me more than an hour to do so.

First, I got up early (for me) at 7:30 am and moved my two irrigation sprinkler lines over to the next valves.  After checking the valve leak, and seeing it was slightly less and still manageable for now, I then went back to sleep by 9:30 am and slept until after noon.

Here are photos of what's left of my middle pasture corner log pile I mentioned yesterday, and how wet it gets.  This is after I moved the sprinkler line.

Then in the afternoon it was time to fix the leaks.

After I shut the pump off I walked all the way to the east end of the line.  I believe I earlier mentioned that when assembling the main irrigation line I had one pipe that didn't slip into the other pipe as far as the other pipes would slip into each other.  Since the aluminum pipe had a gasket inside, and the steel pipe has a gasket outside of the pipe I figured that may be enough to stop a leak.  That was wishful thinking.

So I removed the endcap to drain the pipes of water.  After I took out the steel pipe I discovered that gasket was torn.  So I went and got another gasket.  Still the pipe did not want to go all the way into the other pipe.  I noticed the end of the steel pipe had a real small ding/bend in it.  The gasket sits in a small groove in the pipe.  The ding/bend was so small it was still less in size than the gasket.  Still I decided to straighten the ding/bend.  Being a strong steel pipe I could not use a plier to straighten the ding/bend.  I went and got a hammer and small metal punch.  I straightened the ding/bend.   This time the pipe slid all the way into the aluminum pipe.  Again, the ding/bend was so small I am surprised this fixed the problem.

Then on to my main leak problem: the valve.

Fist I had to un-connect the irrigation pipes to the corner of pipes. Then the problem I had was un-connecting the last 40 foot aluminum pipe from the partial irrigation pipe connection that screwed into the valve.  This pipe goes through the wall of the irrigation shed.   A few years ago I had fixed the corner problem, and in doing so I had to cut the wall opening a little larger so I could move the irrigation pipe to the right.  I had only cut the opening larger to be the size of the pipe.  To un-connect the pipe I had to move the pipe up slightly to unhook the latch.  I couldn't do it.  I had to cut several inches of the wall above the pipe,  Then I could un-hook the pipe.

Then using a pipe wrench I worked at unscrewing the pipe and the valve.  But it wouldn't turn.  I could put lots of pressure on the pipe but I was also concerned I may break some other pipe section.  Look at a previous photo to see what I mean.  So I walked home and got a second pipe wrench.

With both wrenches I was able to unscrew the valve from the pipe going to the irrigation pump.  I took the valve and irrigation pipe connector outside to work on.  I couldn't unscrew it.  I even set both pipe wrenches on the parts and stood on the pipe wrenches to try to unscrew the two pieces.  So I had to take the pipe wrenches and valve back to the yard.

At the yard I used WD-40 on the threads.  Nothing.   I then used a blowtorch to heat the valve in order to make it expand.  I heated the valve hot.  Still it wouldn't unscrew.  Now the irrigation pipe connector seemed like it wanted to start bending.  So I quit.  While the crack seemed to be in the valve stem, and one could take that off and replace that part, I gave up and used a hacksaw to cut on the valve where it screws to the pipe.  I was careful not to cut the irrigation pipe.  I can replace the valve.  The irrigation pipe connector... probably not.  Years ago I had a guy weld and create me this irrigation connector.  Before that dad used a poor irrigation connector that was bad; it was loose and leaked.

I was able to cut enough of the valve that I could finally unscrew it.

Then I was back to the irrigation pump to install the other valve I had found in the tool shed.  I don't know why dad had two valves, but I am glad he did.

Because the connector pipe had to have the hook area on top I was careful to not over-tighten the connector.  That may be why it was so hard to unscrew the connector from the other valve.  When I re-started the pump I seen that I had a slow drip, even with thread seal on the threads.  If the leak doesn't eventually stop on its own I may try tightening the connector after my irrigation season is over, even though that means un-connecting all the pipes back to the corner.

Re-connecting the irrigation pipes to the corner was an effort as all but one pipe was a steel pipe.  In the end one pipe connection had a small leak.  But that's okay as it is small and is outside.  That may stop as sometimes they do when the pressure really expands the gasket.  I'll see tomorrow.

Before I restarted the irrigation pump I had two other leaks in my mainline pipes, one being annoying.

The annoying leak leaked last year.  By the end of the irrigation season the area was very wet and had a little standing water.

I didn't fix this leak last year as to do so meant un-connect steel pipes all the way to the fence in the distance.

Plus some of the pipes I would have to un-connect were underground so that I can drive through my gate and not damage steel pipes.

So I put off the fix for another day after irrigation season was over and I had more time.   ...that's didn't happen.       What I did today is a trick I somewhat learned works sometimes.   An earlier photo of another leak better shows what I mean by "clamshell" as I can't think of a better word for the attachment right now.  The "clamshell" is how these particular steel pipes with no valves are attached together.  One pipe has a lip and the other pipe has a clamshell attachment that drops over the lip to hold the two pipes together.  That is how they did it with steel pipes back then when the steel pipe did not have a valve attached to it.  The clamshell attachment doesn't work with an aluminum pipe so I have to wire those two pipes together.  Unlike a hook attachment one cannot adjust the length of the clamshell attachment.  What I figured out is that sometimes there is a small gap between the end of the clamshell and the lip and it one can wedge a small rock in there the water pressure won't cause the gap to disappear.  That gap shouldn't matter in some cases since the other gasket should be enough to prevent leaks.  But that isn't always the case.

I wedged a small rock in the gap.  It didn't completely stop the leak but it slowed it down.  I also did this trick on the other leak.  That wasn't as large of a leak, but that leak is also smaller now.

Then it was back to irrigating.  Because all this repair work took four to five hours I didn't move the irrigation lines tonight to give the irrigation more time to water the ground.   With our heat and dry weather, the hayfield is drying out fast and I need to keep irrigating as fast as I can in order to have a second cutting of hay.