[irrig8r]

Ran across two problematic Toro 252 solenoids today... the old style with the tabs for the screws.

Customer didn't know when they stopped working, but in cleaning out the gopher-deposited soil from the valve box I ran into both an older discarded solenoid and a loose plunger spring (those babies are tiny, don't know how I spotted it).

If you ever work on these valves be very careful. The plunger and spring really want very badly to get loose and lost. These are at least 15 to 20 years old. Bright green bleed screw.

First, a multimeter test revealed slightly higher than normal resistance. New splices cured that. Still the valves wouldn't operate. Decided to open 'em up look for clogged ports or stuck plungers.

Zone 3 valve had the plunger in upside down and no spring. Instead of the rubber end of the plunger hitting the seat/ port/ whatchamacallit, the round steel point must have fit right into the little hole. It was stuck in place inside the coil with a few large grains of sand holding it.

Zone 4 valve had the plunger in right side up, but it was sticking. Tapped the coil a few times and rusty spring fell out. Apparently not the stock spring, but an "aftermarket" job... as if the gardener or whoever messed with it improvised after he lost the original and stole it from a skinny ball point pen.

OTOH, just because the replacement solenoid has a SS spring it doesn't mean the originals did. I mean after all, it's a furshlugginer Toro valve. They redesigned the bleed screw a couple of times and the diaphragms at least three times as I recall...

Anyway, just another day in the field. Nice to have a remote to activate the valves while I was swapping wires and testing voltage.

 

[Sprinkus]

I didn't think the green bleed screw had been around that long. In fact I was dumbfounded when they made the darn thing green!
Try finding it in the grass after it "flies" off of the valve when manually bleeding the valve. The black ones were hard enough to find already!
Red or orange would have made more sense.

 

[NC_Irrigator]

The tabs you are referring to are for the 1" model (with screws for holding the solenoid in) and are still made today for the 1" model.

The 1.5 and 2" 252's are screw in threaded type solenoids, with really fine plastic threads. And yes all 252's have the plunger and spring setup, its one design setback in my opinion for service techs that arent used to toro's valves.

They start unwinding the solenoid and forget that the plunger and spring come out and next thing they know theyve lost them somewhere in the valve box. And good luck to them, that spring is indeed tiny.

Im pretty sure that the plunger for the 1" and 1.5/2" arent the same.

Captured plungers are the way to go.....

 

[NC_Irrigator]

They started doing the green bleed screws 3 to 4 yrs ago.

Now ive seen they're back to black, as the last few toro valves i bought (for parts of course) have black stems.....

 

[FIMCO-MEISTER]

I buried a lot of 252 when I was a pup learning the trade.

 

[irrig8r]

They started doing the green bleed screws 3 to 4 yrs ago.

That doesn't make any sense... unless someone put new bleed screw/ metering rods in these. Or if they replaced the whole bonnet assemblies when they botched the solenoids.

 

[1idejim]

The tabs you are referring to are for the 1" model (with screws for holding the solenoid in) and are still made today for the 1" model.

The 1.5 and 2" 252's are screw in threaded type solenoids, with really fine plastic threads. And yes all 252's have the plunger and spring setup, its one design setback in my opinion for service techs that arent used to toro's valves.

They start unwinding the solenoid and forget that the plunger and spring come out and next thing they know theyve lost them somewhere in the valve box. And good luck to them, that spring is indeed tiny.

Im pretty sure that the plunger for the 1" and 1.5/2" arent the same.

Captured plungers are the way to go.....

i have had good luck with using the stationmaster to energize the solenoid while removing/replacing, capturing the plunger.

 

[irrig8r]

i have had good luck with using the stationmaster to energize the solenoid while removing/replacing, capturing the plunger.

Funny you should mention that Jim. I fired up the first valve when repaired with the Stationmaster.

But when not in the valve, the Stationmaster didn't seem to have much effect on either the old or new Toro solenoid, with or w/o the spring in place. Not much pull or holding power.

Certainly not as strong as a pull as I've witnessed with Irritrol/ Richdel or other valves. I thought it was weird, but the plunger is pretty small diameter... maybe that had something to do with it.

 

[FIMCO-MEISTER]

I'm going way back in my memory but the original SMs used to show a short on some of the old toro solenoids even if they worked fine.

 

[1idejim]

I'm going way back in my memory but the original SMs used to show a short on some of the old toro solenoids even if they worked fine.

stationmasters are similar to multimeters pete, when a multimeter measures resistance below a set value it will respond with a sound to signify continuity.

when you connect the SM to a solenoid and the resistance measures below a certain value it measures short.

what you may have been experiencing a low resistance solenoid that the stationmaster was "seeing" as a short.

the term "short" is quite broad, many different issues fall under the description of a short. example-when two wires touch, a shortened wire path is created and resistance is lowered.

glad that you brought this up pete, gregg i haven't run into that situation yet

 

[FIMCO-MEISTER]

Imperials and some of the older WMs did it as well. I believe Peter Pauls on Hayes valves also. They were also some of the more difficult to track as well. Send you right past the valve box.