How to fix a garden hose faucet valve leak

Question

My garden hose faucet leaks out of the valve knob center whenever it is on. Can this be fixed? How?

Answer 1

You need to replace the stem packing. The stem that the knob is affixed to the end of is sealed with a packing nut which has either a packing washer or a quantity of packing material under it.

You can buy "string packing" at the hardware store. Loosen the packing nut and jam a few loops of it up under the nut, then tighten it back down.

Answer 2

I recently had a similar problem (different style tap). I believe what you probably need to do is -

1. turn off the water to the tap (ie at the mains)
2. Undo the tap by using a spanner turning anticlockwise on the hexagonal part beneath the tap handle. Unfortunately this is likely to be quite tight as its been painted over. [ It might be easier to unscrew the tap off the wall, then put it in a vice to get it off ]
3. Remove and replace the washer beneath the tap - This is the key part.
4. Apply plumbing tape (about 10-20 turns - 30cm/a foot or so of tape) to the male part of the hex part of the tap
5. Screw tap back in as tight as you can.
6. Cross fingers, turn mains on, turn tap on to see if problem is solved.

I do note that when I attempted part 3, I noticed that the brass underneath the washer was actually stuffed, so I dug up another tap and fitted that instead of replacing the washer - I expect taps are cheaper in the US, but I paid about US$20 for a replacement tap.

Answer 3

Cute! Love that old faucet. Have you tried turning the water off at the street, disassembling this faucet and using plumber's tape on the threads? Otherwise, get a new faucet! Depending where you live you might find a stand alone faucet called frost proof would be a good idea to install. Not tough to do at all. Otherwise, looks like you could screw that old head off, scrub the rust off and use plumber's tape. Great great stuff!