Now, it just happens that the ole' junk box had two repair kits in it. One, the aforementioned 09872, and one with the stainless steel cover. The gray tank had to remain all plastic, since the replaceable cover is the piece that I left installed. The black valve, on the other hand, was totally removed and available. I got to thinking about the tight fit of the assembly and the relative thinness of the steel cover and decided that converting that valve would actually help me get the assembly back in, by providing about 1/8" wiggle room.
While the valves were open, I took the time to use some very fine sand paper to remove many ridges and scratches in valve bodies and sliding plate. I have no clue how abrasives get into the black tank, but it was more badly scarred than the the gray valve--did the PO have a gizzard? Totally clueless. The one thing I take away from this is, be careful what you allow to go down the sink--you can ruin the seal by damaging the plastic slider plate.
Voila! I was right about the clearance. Everything went back in place quickly,
EXCEPT for the gasket for the gray valve. How to do this, with only the skimpiest of space? Without going into the details and the excercise of a consderable bit of seldom-used vocabulary, I eventually hit on looping the gasket around the forward piece of the valve, then gingerly feeding it in from all sides, using small nails through the screw holes to pin it in place as each section of gasket found it's place. I also used a little vaseline jelly to provide some viscous holding friction, which helped a lot.
(yes, I'm pretty happy about this!)
Many of you will recognize that the valve handles are adjustable. When I reconnected them, I discovered that there was no way the gray valve could have been fully closed. I wonder how long this problem had existed? I think for some time, since the main problem with the valve was that it was clogged with accumulated trash that resembled a dried out corn cob, just not as hard. I think the PO allowed the adjustment to creep and didn't realize how simple the problem was. This allowed the slightly open valve to accumulated garbage, which totally prevented its closing. On the other hand, the valves needed to be repaired. The main seals were both badly cracked, even though the black valve continued to function perfectly.
Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to repair the skin...
Next thread: STRUCTURAL REPAIR OF THE UPPER ZIP DEE FITTINGS (part of the on-going removal of the vista view windows)
Zep