I have a valve on a hot water line that "appears" to be stuck just a little bit open. I don't want to risk breaking it so want to turn off the water earlier on the line. The problem is that when I tried to close THAT valve (CW) the stem just about popped out and into my hand. The line was full pressure (and HOT) but I managed to reverse the direction (CCW) and get the stem to go back in. Googling this doesn't come up with anything. I can't believe this is a unique situation. I don't have an earlier valve on the line I can turn off so I need to work out a handling.
Water – Hot water isolating valve, when try to close the stem comes out
valvewater
Related Solutions
This is most likely due to a partially closed shutoff valve under your sink. Most such valves are designed to stop water but not to just reduce the flow, so if the valve isn't fully opened, it may be partially obstructing the water flow in a way that generates lots of noise/vibration. So check the valves supplying hot water to your sink and make sure they're completely opened.
I've dealt with these before. The flex pipe is silver soldered into the valve body, probably a product design of the day to dispense with having a problematic compression fitting that would eventually leak.
If you loosen the nut from the pipe nipple, the valve body and flex supply line pipe will be rotatable to position it for a direct lineup to the faucet inlet.
Even if the other end of the metal flex supply line is compatible with the faucet (sounds like it isn't), brass and copper flex work harden from bending into position and can crack if disturbed for later repairs, so I don't recommend reusing it. The only way to fix this is to replace the shutoff valve with a 1/2" to 3/8" right angle shutoff. The newer ones available are nice quarter turn units. Remove the compression fitting nut and ferrule and the 3/8" supply line should thread right on. They use a neoprene flat washer now that gets rid of the leak problem the original silver-soldered supply line was meant to prevent.
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Best Answer
The parts below this stem have corroded off. You will need to turn the water ahead of this valve even if it means shutting down the whole water system. If that is impossible because it is in a hospital or a production line setting, then you could freeze the line with dry ice or with a freeze kit as long as the flow can be stopped long enough to get the line to freeze.