Ongoing...

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I did get it all hooked back up, and got a pot in which to catch any water flow.  I started with the original ceramic... valve, really.  Turned on the water, no leaks, so I tried the valve.  Nothing.  I tried the sprayer, it is supposed to work regardless if the tap is turned on.  No go there, either.  So, I shut it all down, drained the water in the faucet into the pot, and installed the new ceramic valve, set it all back up, twisted the lever and... nothing.  Again, nothing through the sprayer, either.  Again, I turned everything off and drained the system.  This time I wanted to see, without the ceramic valve, if water came through just the metalworks of the faucet.  It does.  And, yes, I used the pot to catch all... uhrm... most of it.  You can't ever catch all of it.  Water is what it is.

*deep breath*

I am not exactly sure what to do at this point.  Ah, first thing, take a break.

There is only one way the ceramic valve goes into the system.  There are two knobs on the device, and two divots in the faucet body into which they fit.  I have tightened the brass keeper, the one I thought I needed a special tool to remove, as tight as I am willing to tighten it, and jiggled the faucet  while doing so to make sure the valve was well seated and not loose in the body so as to prevent a seal.  The ceramic valve seats up against the main faucet body, with small o-rings to complete the seal flush with the body and against the holes for the various waterways.  I suppose I could daub vaseline on those, to try to ensure the seal.  Not a bad plan anyway, for the life of the o-rings...  Not sure that will help though.  Who knows.

What bugs me is that the faucet worked, if rather weakly, until I put in the r.o. system.  While the old water valves weren't good, they did limit some water flow...  Though, that may just have increased pressure?  Yeah, but for how far up the long flexhoses?  At some point pressure without volume... never mind, just... I guess you would have to do the math, then check that.  Could high pressure have reached the valve?  Possible.  But it wouldn't affect the brass.  At most it might lodge something into the ceramic valve.  But the way the valve is, as it seems to me, something lodged in it is the only way to really hurt it, which would stop it from twisting.  And that isn't the case.  Bleh...  I wonder... if I ran a wire, a strong enough wire, with something covering the point... a bit of duct tape perhaps, through the waterways in the ceramic valve...  Hmm, but why would the replacement valve also be failing?  No... I would only get a bit of duct tape stuck in the valve.  Gah!  I'll... take a break, maybe do a bit of research, and try to figure it all out before too much time elapses.  On the job training sort of stinks when you are the trainer, the learner, and the worker, and sort of on a schedule, innit?

Oh, okay.  The proper terms for the ceramic valve is ceramic disc.  I'm off to find troubleshooting that type of system, now that I have the correct terms.  Uhrm, after a cup of coffee.  S... l... o... w...  But getting there.

Later.