Pulling beaded liner from channel to replace fitting

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T

tphaggerty

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Jun 27, 2007
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Poughquag, NY
I have a leak in my return line. The fitting is broken and I have the replacement. Pool is drained well below the fitting. Everything is set except I cannot figure out how to get the beaded liner out of the track in order to get the old fitting out and the new fitting in. (20 x 40 IG).

I tried using a plunger but that just pulls the liner away from the pool wall, doesn't seem to do anything with the bead itself. I am trying to get this done as soon as possible so I can get the pool closed up for the winter.

Do I need a special tool or ?? I could possibly get something up to the bead from the fitting hole, but I don't want to do any damage!

Thanks for any help!!
 
The first thing to try is pouring some warm water (hot water from the tap is fine, you DO NOT want boiling water!!) on the area and drying it with a towel - this will give the liner a little stretch. Then you can try to work the liner up from just below the bead with your fingers or catch the seam with your fingernails and push it up. If that doesn't work, you can try duct tape - overlap 3 ~1' pieces so that they are ~ 4" wide use 2 6" pieces to go horizontally at the bottom of these to help secure them. The extra that's not taped to the liner a couple of inches below the coping can be used to pull up on the liner (* caution! I've punched myself in the mouth a couple of times doing this if the tape doesn't stick or rips while I'm pulling up :grrrr: ) use your free hand to keep the tape on the liner and add a little upward force to it.

I hope this will be enough for you to get to the fitting - if you need some more advice, just post and I'll do my best to help you 8)

Once you get the new fitting installed, you've got to match up the screw holes in the liner ~ perfectly to prevent leaks, as such - I'd put the faceplate back on before retucking the liner. If you have any trouble getting the liner back into the track, let me know and I'll link up my 'A-B-C's of liner tucks' post from last year, which should enable you to finish this job so you can get the pool closed.

Good luck with this project!!
 
There's a lip on the bead so you need to pull it up ~ 1/8 - 1/4 inch then out 8) The bead wants to be a little further up than perpendicular to the track before it will let go.

I hope I explained this well - if not - I'll give it another try :)
 
No, I understand. Tried the tape and it isn't working. I'm flummoxed. This has been a real pain! There is no real way to get a grip on the liner up right at the bead to try and pull it out. I tried the tape and a plunger, both allowed me to pull the liner out, but really too far down to get the bead out. Today has been quite warm so the liner is pretty supple, but it just ain't happening! But, I'm going to go and try again with the tape.

If I can't get the bead out, I can only see 2 ways to fix this - slit the liner or try and break up the existing fitting and just have the new fitting go on over the outside of the liner. The "inner lip" of the fitting is too big to go through the existing hole in the liner, even if I manage to get the fitting sideways and the liner stretches - I'm afraid I'll get a sudden liner tear.

This is where I was hoping for the "magic tool" to be described!!!
 
OK, got the bead out. All of the tape pulling must have loosened the bead. I had a flat, long piece of aluminum that I taped to blunt - pushed that up through the liner hole, worked it a bit and - yeah!! - the liner bead came out. I had tried the flat bar before, but it wasn't working.

Now, on to the next problem. I have only been able to get about 4" of the liner out, it is stuck HARD at either side. It is way too small still to get my hand down to get the fitting out, I don't think I could even work the fitting out by itself. When I look in the liner channel, I see a small white piece under the liner bead. Is this possibly a "liner lock"?? If so, any tips on getting that out or moving it? I don't have a very fine set of needle nose pliers, I'm thinking if I had some I could pull that out and would probably have enough to finish the job. What say you Waste!

Man, this is definitely a 2 step forward, 1 1/2 back type of job!!!
 
Success (sort of). I was able to get the liner out enough to pull out the old fitting and slip in the new. Never really go the liner to pull out much past the stop points on either side. Something was/is holding that liner in, either some type of liner lock or glue.

I tried everything. I was able to pry the liner out about another inch or 2 (just enough to get my hand behind) using a screwdriver, but it never would just pull out. Hopefully I won't have to deal with this again!!

Thanks for all of your help waste!! Now I just have to cut out the old pipe behind the wall and rework the piping. That part should be much easier.
 
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