Monday, September 2, 2013

Water Water Everywhere...

 This was a good exercise in something, not exactly sure what.

First "official" day of living in RV had an "opportunity" to, umm, improve myself I guess.  Got to the first place in my Journey, the Eagles club #3144 on Vashon Island, WA.  Awesome little place to start the adventure.

Diagnosis

So, upon hooking up water and electric, hour or so later notice the floor is wet around the bathroom and knew this wasn't a good sign.  Thought it was coming from the sink as had it turned on (had to unclog sink drain just prior to this), but to no avail.  Took apart the access panels under the sink and it was bone dry.
First good shot, no drips here

A different view, no leaks here
Next came the toilet, and all the additional fun that comes with researching the problems.  First it wasn't dependent on if connected to city water or on-board water, not that it could be dependent on that, but still.

Reach behind and could feel drippy drip for the water, specifically something metal was wet.  If anyone knows anything about RV toilets, there is no way to really poke a head behind there.  Didn't have any smaller mirrors either.  As it being my first time ever dealing with RV plumbing, took out my phone and started snapping pictures in the hope of identifying where it the water was leaking from.  In addition to not being able to see behind the toilet it's also next to impossible to even grope around behind there.  Came out with couple good shots though.


Just different angle showing no leaks
 With all this picture taking and not finding exactly what was looking for started to get a little upset.  After what seemed like an eternity was able to pinpoint the source of the problem with this last picture of the series which share below.

In another picture of the same location could almost see the drip forming at bottom of the nut and bolt.  Turns out this is some sort of ball valve that controls flow of water (duh) into the toilet for flushing and cleaning...

GOTCHA!!

Removing toilet

Water supply hose removed
This part actually was worse than it looks.  Very odiferous..

Bottom with old seal
First part was to take the toilet out, which was simple yet complex.  Am starting to figure out manufacturers of RV's do their best to conserve space and make everything fit while allowing enough room, barely, to take things in and out.  Unfortunately this is the case with the toilet.

Flange and floor
There are two nuts/bolts that hold this to the floor, and a flange on the flooring which these to into, very similar to how a toilet in the home works (have replaced and worked on some of those also.  In next picture can see flange and the uncleaned floor.  As a note, had to have exhaust fan in bathroom blowing air out as it was a little, umm, ripe....

 Installation


Ball valve and seal kit
Toilet flange cleaned.. :-)  Still smelly
Luckily, as this is a very popular toilet for RV's, went off island (had something to do on mainland) and headed over to Camping World.  Prior to leaving had identified part (and brought it with me) using a search on Start Page, a secure search website using Google but anonymizing me to some extent.

This brought me to Mark's RV Supplies, where was able to identify the part, by picture, that I needed, which is 09868 according to their site, and turns out that's what Camping World has also.  YAY.

Hose carrying flush water
New part and existing plumbing adaptor, with teflon tape

So, picked up the kit and headed back to fix.  Prior to leaving had cleaned area in anticipation.  Picture on the left shows the hose which carries water to flushing mechanism, and right hand side shows new parts to be installed.  Reused existing hardware (though new nut and screws came in the kit).
Hooked up to flush hose

Screwed and inserted
Started going through the reverse process of unhooking everyting by attaching the flush hose that supplies water to the bowl from the ball valve.

Continued by securing the new ball valve to existing metal support structure, reusing the two brass screws that I took off.

Afer this it was "simply" a matter of hooking up water supply and verifying no leaks.

Completed and leak free!

One of nuts for flange to tighten, in back











And there we have it..  All done and life is greater now!

All in all, if knew what to do and had part on hand, would've been done with this within an hour.  As it is probably took 2-3 hours total time, not counting going to get part, etc.  Still a good experience, minus the odirific part.

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