Nothing revelatory here, but I thought it might be of use to someone like me who has not much experience with metal work. After a bit of googling, trial and error I was able to make a penta wrench by filing a bolt. I printed out some pentagons of various sizes with centres marked and glued one that seemed about the right size to some scrap plywood. Then I drilled out the centre so the pentagon would fit snugly to the bolt. Then I cut the wooden pentagon free and attached it to the bolt with adhesive to prevent it from spinning. The wooden pentagon served as a jig to guide the bolt along a file clamped to a table. I don't have a grinder or sander handy but I do have a file. The filing took about an hour. The jig raised the far end of the bolt enough to create a gradual taper on the working end. I marked the sides so I could rotate it regularly and try to give equal attention to each of the 5 sides. The 5 long edges (parallel to the bolt) were quite sharp and I decided to lightly sand each one to ease them just a bit. The wooden jig was cut off and discarded when I was done. Not pretty, but it got the job done fairly quickly and the price was right.
Very cleaver, good job. Maybe you have gotten the pip out already? Maybe you know, it is best to soak cap in DNA over night to loosen seal. Some can be stubborn to remove. Won't be long and you will be cooking on that thing.
as I'm not as clever I took a punt on one of these which seems to work ok: search Five-Point Star Screwdriver Robertson / Triangle Types Bits Set 1/4" Hex Shank on ebay
As much as I'd like to be thought of as clever, I did not come up with the jig idea. That is something I first discovered from a youtube (below) during my googling. It seems obvious in retrospect but it's unlikely that would have occurred to me out of the blue! Thanks ally for the name of that ebay item - I was not aware of that despite searching online and it's good to know.
Thanks Daryl, helpful info about soaking the valve to release the seal. In this case I had already briefly heated the SRV with a torch to release any thread locking compound, and it worked. I now have the SRV fully disassembled and the pip and washer removed, just waiting to receive the Viton replacements. Before removing the SRV, I measured the depth to which it was set. I also decided to leave the charring (from the torch) intact since it will serve as another means of confirming that I reinstall it to the former depth. I will clean it up once reassembled.
Again, good job. Yep heat and YouTube are your friends. Good point to mention depth and putting it back as you found it. Thanks for sharing, what you posted here will help others when they come across their first PRV cap.
