impact sprinkler head not rotating

[stickshift]

Got an old Rainbird impact sprinkler head. Was working fine last year. When I opened up the sprinkler lines this season this head is not rotating. Water is spraying, and the 'impacting' where the piece that swings back and forth in front of the spray nozzle by way of spring tension is happening, so I have the usual "machine gun" like spray and sound, but no rotation. I can manually swing it around easily - perhaps too easily, maybe the spring is worn out and not enough tension, though as I mentioned, the piece that swings back and forth is swinging.

What to check? I guess I need to get it out of the ground to really inspect it, and possibly replace parts. Is there a way to get it out without buying one of these tools?

 

[nadogail]

Does Rainbird offer technical support?

 

[Busted Knucles]

The heads are 10 bucks and wear out. Grab it and unscrew it
Probably 1/2" or 2/4" Npt plastic threaded. Did out around it first.
Turn on zone manually to blow the dirt out.

 

[The Tool Tyrant]

I have the same Rainbird pop-ups at my house. You won't be able the remove the head from the case without the tool.
First, check for debris (grass/ roots/ leaves etc.) impeding movement. If your water pressure has dropped, you may need to reposition the return spring into the optional hole for lower water pressure. Seems like I'm always working on one of the 15 in my lawns.

 

[stickshift]

The heads are 10 bucks and wear out. Grab it and unscrew it
Probably 1/2" or 2/4" Npt plastic threaded. Did out around it first.
Turn on zone manually to blow the dirt out.

Are we talking about the same thing? I'm talking about an impact rotor, not a gear driven rotor.

My impact rotor looks something like this, though much older.

 

[stingry]

I had these at my last house. After so long they just wear out and need replaced. No repairable parts. You can either get that tool, remove the old sprinkler and replace it BUT you cannot buy just a replacement sprinkler (at least you couldn’t 7 years ago) so you have to buy the whole pop up and remove the sprinkler and install in the old can or you can replace the whole thing.

 

[stickshift]

Thanks guys. This one is probably 20 years old, so instead of spending $10 on a tool to take it out and try to repair or replace parts, I'm going to replace it with a new impact for $15 and not have to worry about it for another 10+ years.

 

[The Tool Tyrant]

Thanks guys. This one is probably 20 years old, so instead of spending $10 on a tool to take it out and try to repair or replace parts, I'm going to replace it with a new impact for $15 and not have to worry about it for another 10+ years.

Hopefully, your existing unit is plumbed into the bottom port rather than the side port!

 

[stickshift]

Hopefully, your existing unit is plumbed into the bottom port rather than the side port!

Unfortunately, it's plumbed to the side port.

The line is poly pipe with a T fitting that goes to the side port of the impact sprinkler. So one option is to cut the pipe on both sides of the T fitting, install the T fitting on the sprinkler, install short pieces of poly pipe on either side of the T fitting using poly clamps, then reconnect all that to the underground poly pipe using a couple of coupling fittings and two clamps for each coupling. Total PITA.

Maybe I could leave all the existing plumbing in place and run some funny pipe (way more flexible than the poly pipe) from the T fitting (via funny pipe barbed elbow) to the impact sprinkler (via another funny pipe barbed elbow)?

 

[The Tool Tyrant]

Stickshift, save yourself a lot of work and buy the damn wrench and just replace the old impact unit with the new one. I've had to change out quite a few in my lawns and it's the smart way to do it.