How To Assemble The Brace Manual Wireline Valve

Hello. I’m Clint with Brace Tool and today I’m going to do an assembly and demonstration video for our 3” Wireline Valve. We’ll start with the body. Lay it down on the bench. We’ll take our nut, put it onto our union. Install our hand union onto the body. Install the body onto the assembly union. Then we’ll install the top sub.

I have pre-installed all of my O-rings and lubricated everything prior to starting this video so that everything goes quicker and smoother. And I’ve pre-assembled some of the repetitive parts as well. Once those are installed you should torque those to spec.

All tool specs are available on our spec sheets. And when they’re torqued to spec then there are set screws on the back and front of the wireline valve body on the top and the bottom which can be torqued in to prevent those from backing out should anything turn in on the wellhead.

And now I’ll start assembling all my parts for the ram blocks and everything here. We’ll take our piston housing. The piston housing holds the V packing and some seals and keeps everything sealed from the outside. I’ve already installed the seals but I’ll show you what they look like.

There’s a female backup ring, two pieces of V packing and then a male backup ring which has an external and internal ring. Those all fit inside there and they’re held there by a snap ring. First thing we’ll install is the anti-rotation pin. That stops the ram block from being able to rotate inside the wireline valve body. That gets put in and torqued just slightly. It doesn’t need to be over torqued, it will not come off inside there. Then we’ll install our lockout pin.

The lockout pin comes with a bushing. Bushings designed to rotate on the shaft and in between the ram block to eliminate wear and friction. That’ll thread in and we’ll thread that in just so that the top of the shaft is flush below the threads on the piston housing. Then I’ll install my retainer nut and this is just for assembly purpose right at the moment because when we install our ram block we’ll have to turn this with some left hand work.

So now I’ll install the outer seal into the ram block. It can only go in one way against the little tabs that face upwards and it slides into the ram block. Squeeze it in, make sure it’s nice and flush so it’ll assemble easily. Our line guide. The line guide will be matched to whatever size line your wireline valve should be used with. This one is for slickline. There’s two cap head screws that hold those on. Then you’ll install the ram block onto the piston housing.

So we slide the lockout pin in and align the anti-rotation pin with the hole in the ram block. This is where this nut comes in handy because then you turn this to the left and align the holes all up with the anti-rotation pin. You can remove the nut. And we can use the wrench on the flats of the lockout pin now.

I like to thread this in all the way so that the ram block is touching against the piston housing. That way it’s kind of all solid and easier to manage. I’m going to torque it so it’s flush. Then we’ll install our alignment pin. It’s a small alignment pin and lines up with this hole in your piston housing and onto your wireline valve body. This ensures that everything is aligned correctly inside the wireline valve body. It doesn’t need to be over torqued. It’s got a slot head in it so if you over torque it you can flare it out and you don’t want to do that.

Then we’ll take our inner seal and install the key. The key has two little tabs on it that align with the slots in the inner seal and on the ram block there’s a slot that that key aligns with. That slides in there. Then we’ll take our assembly, slide it into the body, push it in and align the alignment pin. You can see that’s nice and flush and tight there. Then we can install our nut.

This retainer nut holds your piston housing in the wireline valve body. Then we’ll install our spire lock ring. The spire lock ring locks your nut onto the body so that it can’t be backed off. That’s in there. Then we can install the handle onto the wireline valve using the same nut that we removed.

At this point we’ll turn the body around and I’ll install the other side which I have already pre-assembled. Make sure the alignment pin and the hole are all aligning. It fits the other nice and snug. Install the other retainer nut and the second spire lock ring. And our second handle.

At this point we can assemble our equalizing assembly. Equalizing assembly consists of a valve. It’s got a hex head in it and a body. The body’s threaded and the valve has already seals on it. And there’s a metal to metal seat on the very tip of the valve as well so, it goes in, doesn’t need to be super torqued in, just blocking it out. The seals will take care of the rest. And we’ll install the retainer screw.

The retainer screw is there to hold the equalizing valve from backing out of the thread too far. So it just covers the very edge of the thread and the valve that will back out against it and not allow you to come out any further than that. That gets installed into the body in the bottom corner. Then you tighten it up and torque it into spec, which , as I’ve said before, is all available on our tech sheets.

These two adapter plugs are thread into the body and they cross over to ½“ NPT boxes. The pipe plug can be removed from those and replaced with a needle valve or pressure gauge. Equalizers hoses, many different applications for those. Those also both can be torqued in to spec. The wireline valve’s now assembled.

At this point we want to function test it and make sure everything goes together smoothly. And you want to close your arms evenly so that when everything’s done up and closed your ram blocks line up in the center of your wireline valve body. They’re together. I always look inside, make sure everything’s lined up. No air space in there.

And after you’ve serviced your wireline valve every time, this should be re-pressure tested and make sure you have no leaks or anything and regular maintenance is crucial. Thank you.