Leaking vintage faucets

A buddy of mine recently purchased these:

Leaking Vintage Faucets on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

They look cool as hell, but they leak. There are holes inside, which when lined up, dispense the beer. You'd think there is just a gasket that needs to be greased or replaced, but there wasn't anything obvious. Has anyone seen these before? Any ideas on where you could find specs or replacement parts?

Where do they leak from? is it where they screw into the shank, or out of the nozzle?

And those really are cool as all get out. Is there a brand name?

Has he taken them apart? Any chance of getting pictures of the insides?

they are old soda faucets. see if you can take them apart and clean them or replace any seals in them because they are very expensive to replace.

I bought a faucet lke that at a rummage sale once...

The design (at least on mine) is a tapered bolt that can be tightened an loosened with the thumb screw on the right side. There are no gaskets and the "seal" is maintained only by metal to metal contact. An internal spring coupled to the tapered bolt keeps everything tight.

The faucet dispenses beer by aligning a hole in the bolt with the faucet outlet.

I think the design is great for actively dispensing beer but will always leak if left for any period of time. I got the leak on mine to be pretty slow, but could never stop it.

Maybe use these on a really awesome jockey box and just use it for parties.

Yours could be different from the ones I had, but the structure looks exactly the same.

Thanks Kabouter. There is no makers mark on these, so finding replacement parts would be difficult at best.

He had taken them apart, but there wasn't any obvious seal to replace. I think there are two holes where beer is dispensed. I wonder if there are replacement springs that would push the metal together better, then add a little keg lube or something.

I love your faucets; I wonder if McMaster would have an O ring you could fitin there...

If the seal is tapered there is probably a compression spring at one end for a preload. It may need to be tightened or replaced. The seal should also be lubricated with Vaseline or a food grade grease.

Tom