Well, the solenoids (shown lying on the ground outside the valve box) should be threaded into the fairly obvious locations on the valves. The knobs in the center of the valves are called flow controls and will regulate the amount of water that passes through valve when it is open; more than likely these could be left where they are. The screws indicated in your picture are manual bleed screws these can be used to manually actuate your valve (turn it on/off). As for why there are both a ball valve and a gate valve, who knows perhaps whimsy on the part of the installer or some situation where an additional valve was necessary; maybe the gate valve leaks? I would recommend you thread the solenoids into the valves and fire the system up, it should work. The only issue I see is that the valves may not correspond correctly with the indicated position within the clock; some trial and error may be necessary to get the solenoids back where they belong.

are the openings about 1/4" or 1/8" inch if so look on the side and do you see a common screw all that you need to do is take a screw driver and turn them until the water stops. These openings are test cocks that is were the testers connect their gauges. Here is a link that might be useful: do_it_your_self_site

Hope this is still active. I have my sprinkler system controller in my garage. I have valves for the front yard sprinklers and valves for the back. My controller will still turn on front yard sprinklers, but not the backyard. It usedan to wor fine. The connections seem tight at the controller. Don't see any loose connections by the valves though it is somewhat complex looking at there. The valves will turn on the sprinklers if turned manually. How can I check for loose connections versus wire shortages. Not sure if relevant, but we (gardener) did change front yard sprinkler stations prior to the backyard issue started. But I can't remember if the backyard sprinklers were working after that for a short period of time or not. Thanks for any help.

Ours system has been in for 23 years. It was self installed and was built with a drain plug at the lowest level that could be manually opened to drain the main. The plug was installed with a valve cover over it to get to it easily. We would turn off the valves at the BFP, stuff a towel around it in the box, and drain the system every year in the late 80's and early 90's when we were expecting really cold weather for several days. In the past 6 or so years we haven't done anything to winterize it since the winters haven't brought any sustained cold weather, and we do run it periodically in the winter if we haven't had much precip and a cold snap was coming. I don't think the shrub heads keep water in the pipes - they seem to drain back into the underground pipes, (after 23 years we probably have some tiny leaks) so as long as they are empty, they shouldn't get damage.