How Difficult to Replace Basic Handwheel?

Hi there, I have a very easy question for someone with plumbing knowledge.

I have a home that was ding'd by the home inspector for having a broken handwheel on the cold water shutoff valve to the water heater. Its your basic gate valve, but the handwheel is cracked in half with the missing half long gone. I want to know can I just unbolt the handwheel and bolt on a replacement or does this necessitate replacing the entire valve assembly? Thanks for any quick responses, as I'm heading two hours out of town to do this 8 hours from now! It looks like this:

I see a retaining nut on that particular one...it should be good to go.

So I can replace just the handwheel? I don't have to do anything special like shut off the water or remove the entire valve assembly?

seaofnames said:

I see a retaining nut on that particular one...it should be good to go.

Click to expand...

That nut is all that hold the wheel on. You will have to find a wheel that will fit, but removing and replacing is child's play.

Finding one that fits will be the hardest part of the job.
There are an abundance of different wheels out there...
They all look the same until you try them.

Redwood said:

Finding one that fits will be the hardest part of the job..

Click to expand...

When I was a kid (17) fixing something at my mom's a valve like that broke after I shut it off and tried to turn the water back on. Had to kill the pump and gut the valve then turn the water back on to get water back to the house. That valve finally got replaced last year....17+ years later.

The posted pic looks like one you picked up at Lowes (American Valve). Count on hunting around at the destination to find one that matches the existing.

handle

If the stem has a square end on it, a replacement handle may be relatively easy to find. If it has splines, you will probably have to find a handle from a valve exactly like yours to make it fit.