It looks to me like people are trying to fix a whole lot that isnt exactly broken.That manifold isn't the prettiest i've seen, an certianly if i were doing a fresh install it would look closer to what lehua described with gravel and well placed ..well everything. But as long as water is getting from the source to the valves without leaking, there is no need to rebuild your mainline /manifold. Your choice to repair the current pipe leak or re-invent the system... either way you need that mainline to hold water before the next steps. After that are back to testing valves. You are on the right track with the bleed screw. Its supposed to leak water when open, and allow the valve to open. The black flat knob is the flow control, if it is all the way down, the valve wont typically open at all, so make sure it is up. you should be able to hear the valve activate when you open the screw. Did you hear that with the first valve? If so, let it run until you see water somewhere.. it can sometimes take a while for a leak to show itself. As far as exposing all the lateral lines, totally no need for that. the nice thing about irrigation is that the water will tell you how things connect, you dont actually need to see the pipe to know where it is running, just work slowly and methodically from the water source out. Even worse case, you forget the current system and build a new one from scratch, nothing wrong with leaving sections of the old pipe in the ground. Certainly more cost/ time effective.

A green machine? add-it? drip rite irrigation products? See my other question on this forum about it. I have E-bay # 250435054071 I just suggest, not recommend, Kenny

TAB, Below is a google search for treating high alkaline soils. http://www.ehow.com/info_8444050_alkaline-soil-treatment.html I forgot about adding organic matter to your soil. The way to do this is the aerate your lawn. This essentially takes cores of soil out of your lawn. Then top dress with good highly organic topsoil and flood it into the core holes. Over a period of time doing this you will really improve your ph. Using sulfur fertilizer may be the fastest way but is not producing long term improvement. The Lawn Care Forum could give you more detail. aloha

Pauline At my old home I had a combination of Drippers and overhead sprinklers to accomodate the various conditions in my garden. Most of it was rose beds with small areas of lawn scattered here and there. I had noticed the roses near the areas of grass that were watered overhead tended to have cleaner foliage than areas with just drip irrigation. Here at my new home, I decided to just go with overhead sprinklers. The main reason was due to the stroke I had before the system was installed. The roses were not planted until after my stroke so for a few years my rose beds were a work in progress. Installing drip irrigation was beyond my scope of ability at the time. I could probably do it now but the system I have works. Due to my experience with the clean foliage from the overhead watering, I opted to just go that way. My stystem comes on at 4:00 A.M. and finishes by 11:00 A.M. By noon most foliage is dry. At this late date my roses are mostly blackspot free except for a few small areas that get little sun this late in the season. Most beds have good air circulation that helps things dry. A few dead air spaces have roses with blackspot. I'm working on moving roses from those areas. Due to the cool temps we've had all summer, I've not had to water as much as normal. Right now the system is turned off. When on, it waters each of 8 zones for one hour every other day. a rain shutoff keeps the system shut down on rainy days. My very sandy soil lets me water often and very wet soil is dry by late afternoon on hot sunny days. My water source is a four inch well with a one horsepower submersible pump. Our water table is high. Most in the area have wells only 20 feet deep. Mine is 40 feet deep. While a few in the area have pumped air during periods of drought, mine has never faltered. My sandy soil and proximity to Lake Michigan possibly helps keep our water table so high. We've all got septic systems so any water used stays here and doesn't run off into storm drains or sewers. By using mostly organic fertilizers and no pesticides, I avoid any chemical fertilizer or pesticide contamination in my water. All these factors must be considered or eventually one will run out of or begin to pump contaminated water.