Out of ideas with a leaking faucet

[vance]

I have two identical taps on my keezer - both stainless Perlick taps, same shanks, everything. One of them started leaking, slowly enough that I didn't notice it for the last few weeks and now a lot. Every time I simply turn the gas on with a liquid line hooked up, beer starts pumping out of the three holes on the part that screws when you connect the shank and the faucet, if that makes sense. I've tried everything - I tried switching shanks, still leaked. I confirmed that my second tap works on the shank that was leaking - no leaks. I took the o-ring from the working tap and put it on the leaking one, but it still leaked.

Just now, I took it to my LHBS. The owner replaced the o-ring and hooked my faucet up to a shank and flowed some beer through from a keg he had sitting around. No leaks! Ok, great - but then I come home, put it back on my keezer, hook up a keg of PBW, and it's still leaking.

I am absolutely out of ideas, and I ran out of CO2 just now so I'm feeling thoroughly pissed off at this thing. What do I try next?

 

[day_trippr]

It sounds like the faucet isn't being drawn tight to the shank so the gasket isn't firmly sealing to both sides. Sometimes this is due to a slight mismatch in the tooth patterns between shank and faucet, sometimes it's just the faucet being cranky.

One thing you can try is to put some "keg lube" (silicone grease) or equivalent on the gasket and faucet threads so the coupler (the ring thing with the holes) turns more easily when you start getting it tight without galling.

It might just let you draw the two together that little bit more needed to get everything to seal.
I did this to solve the same problem years ago...

Cheers!

 

[vance]

It sounds like the faucet isn't being drawn tight to the shank so the gasket isn't firmly sealing to both sides. Sometimes this is due to a slight mismatch in the tooth patterns between shank and faucet, sometimes it's just the faucet being cranky.

One thing you can try is to put some "keg lube" (silicone grease) or equivalent on the gasket and faucet threads so the coupler (the ring thing with the holes) turns more easily when you start getting it tight without galling.

It might just let you draw the two together that little bit more needed to get everything to seal.
I did this to solve the same problem years ago...

Cheers!

I'll try some keg lube on it. If both of my faucets were leaking on this shank I'd call it a thread problem on the shank and replace it, but my second 630ss works fine on both shanks.