Sprinkler Tee fitting stripped

[Daniel Prince]

My brother just discovered that one of the Tee fittings on our lawn sprinkler system is stripped. He says that the new nipple screws in part way and then just stops. The Tee has glue connections on two sides with a threaded female fitting on the top where a nipple for a sprinkler head screws in.

The Tee is about nine inches deep. On one side there is another PVC pipe less than half an inch away. On the other side, the sidewalk is about four inches away.

Is there an easy way to repair this Tee without digging up and replacing the Tee fitting? Replacing the Tee would be difficult because of the pipe on one side and the sidewalk on the other.

Thank you in advance for all replies.

-- Whenever I hear or think of the song "Great green gobs of greasy grimey gopher guts" I imagine my cat saying; "That sounds REALLY, REALLY good. I'll have some of that!"

[Winston]

(...)

Perhaps you can clean up the threads using a pipe tap on an extension:

Add tap handle and Bob's your uncle.

--Winston

[trader4]

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Trying to restore the threads may be worth a shot, but I've never done it on plastic so don't know if it works. The good news is that it doesn't have to be perfectly leak proof. Even if a few drops of water escape it's just a sprinkler head location.

Two other solutions:

1 - If you have enough headroom that you can loose a few inches, get a plastic male adapter that you can screw in to the existing bad T. Use PVC glue on the threads going into the stripped one. As long as it goes in part way, the glue should hold and seal it. Then you can add another female adaptor to give you the sprinkler connection you need. 2 - If you can just relocate the sprinkler head a few inches, then do this. Get a plug that fits the stripped fitting. Use PVC solvent/ glue to permanently seal that fitting. Then get a "snap T fitting" and attach it next to the failed T. A snap T is a nifty widget made for old work, where you can't cut and move the existing pipe to put a regular T in. It's like a regular T, but has only two thirds the long side. so that it can snap over the pipe that is in place. After it;s glued, you drill out the opening. They come in unthreaded and also where the center part of the T has female threads, which is the one you want. Here in NJ, Lowes has them, HD does not. You can also find them online.