Checking laterals in old Pac-Fab Triton TR60 filter? Sand blowing back into the pool!

[mitchryan912]

That's a BIG crack.

[FormerBromineUser]

I know nothing about equipment... Is that the original broken bit or a new one you found?

[mitchryan912]

That's the original broken hub. It's pretty well cracked, which isn't surprising since this is a 25 year old filter. Most of the plastic inside is pretty brittle and worn.

Here's the old hub, now broken in half, attached to the piping assembly. It turns out that the piping assembly spins off, which makes taking it apart a helluva lot easier.
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The black piece is the new hub. I'm going to hack off the old hub (it's glued on) and put a male thread adapter on it so I can screw on the new hub.

Here's a groove in the lateral threads. Sand must have been coming through this groove.
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The two piping assemblies thread onto these male threads. It took a while to figure that out.
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[FormerBromineUser]

Geez. I am impressed! Even the thought of opening my filter to check the laterals gets my nerves going...

[mitchryan912]

Thanks. I'm definitely enrolled a crash course on all this, as I'm only in my second year (ever) of pool ownership! I honestly have had no idea what I'm doing, but it's not so bad thus far. There's a decent knowledgebase online, and I hope I'm adding to it with what I'm doing (though I don't know how many pre-1990 Triton's are still in service...) It also helps to have a kicks pool shop nearby too (the only pool store anyone on here has ever found to stock K2006's), as they have most of the replacement parts in stock.

[FormerBromineUser]

It's people like you wanting to help others in the future that make this forum so great. Thanks!

[mitchryan912]

Glad I can give back. Everyone here was so helpful to me last year, so I owe it to help others.

So, beware of where your hub spokes will end up when you put the hub back in. I was lucky enough to be able to turn the hub slightly so that I wouldn't have an issue with a lateral not clearing the filer drain valve at the bottom. I couldn't screw a lateral in the way I put it in, but twisted it while it was in the tank, such that it was clear of the drain.
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[mitchryan912]

Got it all back together, filled it with water to cover the laterals, slowly added 325 lbs of "new" sand, and started it up (ran it in filter for a minute, then backwash for 5 minutes, followed by a 2 minute rinse.) The initial startup blew done cloudiness into the pool, but it seems fine now.

The new motor seems to be working much better than the old one too. Debris is no longer floating by the skimmer any more!