Hi, klwlls11, and welcome to the forum!!

The spider gasket in the multiport valve is a pretty easy fix, Pooldoc has left a tutorial with pics here http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...gasket-install. I go through a gasket per season, on average and it only takes a few minutes to replace it.

When you say there's a leak around the fitting where the waste comes out, do you mean all the time, or just when backwashing? If it's all the time, you might find that the leak stops when you replace the multiport gasket. If you mean when it's under pressure, then I'm sure one of the equipment gurus around here will chime in soon with a fix for that, as well as for the leak around the two way ball valve.

What part of the country do you live in? I know there were some massively cold (and long) spells in lots of the country this winter, and I'm sure that could have contributed to the skimmer plate cracks, but again, the equipment experts around here will have much more useful information than I could give you.

Welcome again!

Janet