New Ball Valve - Can't get tight enough

[TheMattTrain]

I've been unsuccessful in brewing drinkable beer pretty much all throughout 2015. I took a break for a while and am trying to get back into it, but I brewed in August and the batch went bad 3 days into fermentation. I did some more research and determined that the most likely culprit was my ball valve. I removed the valve from my kettle, opened it up, and... well... ew.

My new valve is a SS 3-piece ball valve from BrewHardware.com. I'm using a MegaPot 1.2 from Midwest Supplies and all of the hardware they supplied (in a different order than I was told to attach it in because the way they describe didn't work for me or many others on this forum).

After cleaning all of the hardware and reapplying teflon tape, I'm having a problem getting the valve onto the kettle tight enough and it's causing a small leak. I'm hoping someone has an idea.

As it is now, I have a nipple that sits in the middle. On the inside of the kettle there is an o-ring, a lock nut, and a threaded coupling. On the outside I have a washer, the ball valve, and then a hose barb.

When everything is as tight as I can get it, the valve still turns pretty freely.

I think my issue lies in getting the nipple threaded onto the ball valve far enough, but I'm not sure. The problem here is that I have no idea how to hold the nipple so I can turn it onto the valve. I have locking pliers and vice grips, but the one time I used those I dented the threads (they still turn fine). Does anyone have any idea how to thread the nipple onto the valve any farther or have any ideas about how to stop the leak/tighten up the assembly?

 

[LLBeanJ]

I have the exact same setup on a MegaPot 1.2 15G. A while back I tossed the 2-piece valve and replaced it with a 3-piece. IIRC, the nipple threaded into the valve fairly easily. If you have a pipe wrench or a bench vise, either of those should work if the nipple is too tight to fully thread in by hand.

The lock nut should be on the outside of the kettle. The proper order, working from outside to inside is:
1. Valve
2. Lock nut w/O-ring groove facing away from valve
3. Nipple w/Teflon tape on valve end (thread the lock nut to the center of the nipple, then thread the nipple into the valve. After the nipple is threaded in, tighten the lock nut against the valve body. With the nut tightened against the valve, there should be about 1/2" of the nipple sticking out)
4. Rubber O-ring
5. Kettle wall
6. Rubber O-ring
7. Flat washer
8. Coupling

 

[TheMattTrain]

I have the exact same setup on a MegaPot 1.2 15G. A while back I tossed the 2-piece valve and replaced it with a 3-piece. IIRC, the nipple threaded into the valve fairly easily. If you have a pipe wrench or a bench vise, either of those should work if the nipple is too tight to fully thread in by hand.

The lock nut should be on the outside of the kettle. The proper order, working from outside to inside is:
1. Valve
2. Lock nut w/O-ring groove facing away from valve
3. Nipple w/Teflon tape on valve end (thread the lock nut to the center of the nipple, then thread the nipple into the valve. After the nipple is threaded in, tighten the lock nut against the valve body. With the nut tightened against the valve, there should be about 1/2" of the nipple sticking out)
4. Rubber O-ring
5. Kettle wall
6. Rubber O-ring
7. Flat washer
8. Coupling

Thanks. I'll give this order a shot. I'm gonna need to go grab some new o-rings. My setup only has one in it currently, although, after reading this, I do remember the original valve coming with two. I'm hoping this solves the issue.

 

[TheMattTrain]

I went out and got a new set of o-rings. I used the setup you had suggested and it seems to be holding. Let my kettle sit for about 3 hours with 6 gallons of water in it, not a drip.

Thanks!