Ah-ha very good. :^) We've never used the main drain. What we've done is go out to the pool about 6 pm when the wind has died down, cut on the pump, remove the leaves with the screen thing on the end of a pole, and then have the pump shut down around 11pm using a timer. So we run the pump for about 5 hours a day after getting the leaves off the surface of the water so that the skimmer won't get clogged up. That has kept the water clear, and we don't have to worry about the pool pump getting starved of water and burning it up. So the easy thing to do here would be to somehow cap the MD and continue what we've been doing. What I have it capped with now is PFD foam wrapped in plastic wrap with three ten pound weight plates on it. But it doesn't provide a good seal, so the pool is still leaking a lot. Or maybe it is sealing the MD and there's a leak somewhere else. But I carefully went around the pool with ink and a syringe and tested every port and interface, and couldn't see that the ink was being sucked in anywhere.

Anyway, I will just keep it capped until we get another dry spell. Then I'll drain the pool and replace the valve. Then I'll go from there.

Thanks,
S