Any Helpful Hints On Circ Pump Flanges?

I'm replacing a couple of Taco 007s with EcoCirc Varios. The flanges are oriented 90 degrees differently on the pumps. It looks like the gap between the flanges is okay, just the orientation. It's a tight squeeze, but do-able, if I mount the pumps as-is, but the front end would be blocked for maintenance and I'd have to take the pump off (not sure how often this'd be necessary).

How do I approach this? Thankfully it's warm now, so even when it does take the inevitably long time....

I bought some extra Taco flanges. I'm gonna replace them, in all liklihood.

I've seen them and one model even has a built in drain valve. The pumps are already isolated by ball valves. Thing is also, I want to do a minimum amount of work, so if I stick with the Taco flanges the height should be right. All bets are off if I break something, but I probably won't be waiting for something in the mail, and will make do.

BoilerMan said:

Are your original flanges threaded onto copper or iron pipe? If so, just swing them where they need to be with some muscle and two pipe wrenches. I'd remove and re-tape and dope the male pipe and wind on the flanges in the correct orientation.

TS

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I'm not sure what you're telling me. Yes, my original flanges are threaded onto a copper fitting. Are you saying I should try swinging them where they should be, or remove them first? I'm thinking it might leak if I don't take it off and redo. Do people tape first and then put a little pipe dope on top of that?

BoilerMan said:

Yes:
Remove
Clean threads if need be
Tape
Dope over tape on male threads
Re-install flanges to suit new circ.

TS

Click to expand...

The biggest problem, which could always have been worse, was getting the rusted bolts off, even after a night of pickling in PB Blaster.
I wound up not putting dope over the tape, but did put 5 rounds of tape on each.
I like the Taco flanges with its nice adjustable wrench friendliness.
I put the nuts and bolts back in so that it was easy to get at the nut with a socket wrench, which turned out that the bolt head was on the pump flange, which I thought was a good thing anyway.
I got the gasket a little crumpled and unsealing at first, so that's something to look for.