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I finished resealing the black tank gate valve and thought I'd do a followup to help anyone else taking this on. Apologies toJerryr for hijacking his thread. Thanks to Cate&Rob and Country Campers for their suggestions for this nasty project. Also to JBill9694 for pointing out the tight bend in the gray tank - I did reroute it through the other access hole to the basement so that it had just one nice big curve. Those tight bends really restrict the cable from moving smoothly.
Removing the coroplast is definately the way to go rather than cutting a hole. It gives you unrestricted access to the underbelly so you can get a good look at everything (like the tight bend in the gray tank valve). It only took about 10 minutes to roll it back to the axles and doing it that way allowed me to discover the broken screws on a propane tee as well as a really tight bend in the propane hose that had kinked the hose. I picked up some self tapping screws and insulated clamps to reroute the hose and clamp down the tee. Took a bit longer to put the coroplast back up, but most of that was drilling those screws into the frame.
It took a bit of nerve to cut the drain pipe but it was the only way to get the valve off - absolutely no play in the valve to get it out without cutting. Here is the cut pipe with the valve removed.
Once the valve was out, I cleaned it up and tested the operation - it opened and closed easily so no need to replace the whole valve (phew). I had ordered the replacement seals for the valve after GD customer service confirmed it was a Bristol valve (with a 96" cable). Unfortunately the seals had no installation instructions - I suppose they expect RV shops are doing this and know what they are doing (uh huh). I contacted their customer service and found out that Bristol uses liquid silicone to lubricate these seals in the factory - not the plumbers grease I was going to use. Found some on Amazon so hopefully it will help keep the valve running smoothly. Reinstalled the valve using a flexible coupling to reconnect the 2 sections of pipe.
Everything went together without a problem and the leak test was successful. My last comment is the poor design of this manifold for doing repairs. I feel I got lucky having about 14" of straight drain pipe at the end of the manifold that made it easy to cut and remove. But I sure hope I won't have to do the 2 gray tanks valves as they don't have this flexibility. There should be a better way to design this manifold to make repairs easier.
This is a relatively easy job to do and you can save a lot of money. I spent about $100 on parts and it took an afternoon. The mobile RV tech I contacted wanted north of $1000! The worst part was getting my old body down on my back and then back up again...at least 50 times.
Bob
Removing the coroplast is definately the way to go rather than cutting a hole. It gives you unrestricted access to the underbelly so you can get a good look at everything (like the tight bend in the gray tank valve). It only took about 10 minutes to roll it back to the axles and doing it that way allowed me to discover the broken screws on a propane tee as well as a really tight bend in the propane hose that had kinked the hose. I picked up some self tapping screws and insulated clamps to reroute the hose and clamp down the tee. Took a bit longer to put the coroplast back up, but most of that was drilling those screws into the frame.
It took a bit of nerve to cut the drain pipe but it was the only way to get the valve off - absolutely no play in the valve to get it out without cutting. Here is the cut pipe with the valve removed.
Once the valve was out, I cleaned it up and tested the operation - it opened and closed easily so no need to replace the whole valve (phew). I had ordered the replacement seals for the valve after GD customer service confirmed it was a Bristol valve (with a 96" cable). Unfortunately the seals had no installation instructions - I suppose they expect RV shops are doing this and know what they are doing (uh huh). I contacted their customer service and found out that Bristol uses liquid silicone to lubricate these seals in the factory - not the plumbers grease I was going to use. Found some on Amazon so hopefully it will help keep the valve running smoothly. Reinstalled the valve using a flexible coupling to reconnect the 2 sections of pipe.
Everything went together without a problem and the leak test was successful. My last comment is the poor design of this manifold for doing repairs. I feel I got lucky having about 14" of straight drain pipe at the end of the manifold that made it easy to cut and remove. But I sure hope I won't have to do the 2 gray tanks valves as they don't have this flexibility. There should be a better way to design this manifold to make repairs easier.
This is a relatively easy job to do and you can save a lot of money. I spent about $100 on parts and it took an afternoon. The mobile RV tech I contacted wanted north of $1000! The worst part was getting my old body down on my back and then back up again...at least 50 times.
Bob
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