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K_N_L
02-25-2018, 12:17 PM
I found out in very messy way that my black tank valve was leaking last summer, so I added a extra twist on gate at the discharge port and avoided the real issue for another day. Today was that day. The cable operated gate always felt spongy when you pushed it all the way in, I had searched and read through a lot of posts on this topic, armed with that I pulled out everything in the underbelly storage and removed the panels covering the back of the 'convenience center'.

I should have taken a before picture but lets just say the cable for the black valve was making a lot of 90 and 180 degree turns to reach the hole (far left side of the water heater) to where the gates are, it was initially routed between the lower hot and cold PEX lines. Once I loosened the backer nut, the cable spun a couple of turns, so I suspect it was twisted at install. It took a bit of work but I was able to work the cable handle assembly back into the crawl space and re-route it better. The black tank is the upper cable, the gray is the lower in the pics. Btw when i got the camper the tank labels were incorrect and I had to switch them.

So after rerouting and some testing, the it seems to be closing a lot better. But a couple of things came to mind while laying the belly of the beast today. The black tank cable is about a foot too long, and the gray looks a bit tight. Given the reversed labels I suspect that at assembly, whoever is responsible for connecting up the tank valves just grabs one and away they go, never checking the labels, The convenience centers are likely pre-staged and just dropped in very early (have to take the plant tour someday to see, they probably would kick me out for offering suggestions).

And lastly when putting it all back together, I was able to gain about 6 to 8 inches of storage space, by increasing the bend angle of the white panel and the adjacent carpeted panel. The black cable ties on the floor show where the panel was initially. So now we can carry more stuff. All told it took about 90 minutes. Maybe one day I will venture under the coroplast and look at what they did down there.

SloMo
02-26-2018, 03:16 AM
[emoji106]

ctbruce
02-26-2018, 04:25 AM
Great post. This will help someone else, I'm sure.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Racebug
02-26-2018, 09:49 AM
I am in the same boat. I think mine is the grey water from the shower that leaks just a little, but both handles feel spongy. Does it feel more solid now that you have rearranged everything?

Tunnel_Vision
02-26-2018, 10:10 AM
Boy they sure have you water pump mount under a lot of stress, can you relocate to relieve that twist?

I'm with the others, I to have a leaking valve with possibly a spongy cable, did your repair/re-route work?

K_N_L
02-26-2018, 11:27 AM
Yeah - The black valve cable was really corkscrewing its way around. It seems to have less 'stiction' and you can feel it bottoming out some. Having worked on bicycles some, a shorter cable would be my first choice.

I didnt notice that angle on the water pump earlier, looking at it now it might warrant a return trip. Its not noisy but I read a post on how to create an anti-vibration mount and was thinking about that.

I did put a few cable ties on on the TV coax cables to get them out of the way.

Dave W
02-26-2018, 11:36 AM
Hmmm - makes me wonder if the galley tank on our 5er is the same way. Unfortubately that would entail a belly cover take down to look at.

Nice write up:D

mach11961
02-28-2018, 09:13 AM
Yeah I Had both front grey and black water tank valves leaking. And they had to replace the grey water valve and cable and said that the black water valve needed to be adjusted. I check when I got it home and it’s holding for now