When your water fill valve stops working

October 03, 2011, 11:39:29 pm

ON Sunday AM after I filled my fresh water tank, I hit the switch to close the valve. Unfortunately, the valve stuck in the open position. As you know, with that valve open - the water system is disabled. If you are on city water, and the valve is open, the tank fills and overflows on the ground. If you shut off city water, the 12v water pump will not develop pressure, so you have no water pressure to speak of. Tried disconnecting city water and "capping" hose - no change in symptoms.

OK, time to get to work:

Step one, cycle switch - no improvement - valve still open - but I can hear the solenoid is "clicking" as I cycle switch

Step Two - Figure out where the clicking sound is coming from - yes from the valve - buried behind water pump, which is buried itself in a "compartment" made of plywood covered with fabric (see First Picture)

Step Three - Call MOT tech help hot line - Keith (Mike on vacation) suggests to close off "bypass" valve to isolate water fill valve from system, (located at or near your 12v water pump) which will allow use of city of 12v water pump. Only issue - my 2000 U-320 4010 WTFE is not equipped with that valve.

Step Four - remove grey carpeted pieces to gain access to pump and valve (picture two) - see second picture - that is the offending valve behind the water pump. Last picture is a better picture of the pump installed behind the water pump.

Step Five - remove valve from coach - easily done - pex fittings unscrew without tools - find and install plugs in where pump was installed. With plugs installed water system works on both city water and 12v pump.

Step 5 - took valve inside and recorded the manufacturer (Parker hannifin) and model number (would post number, but yours might be different.) Due to sound - believed that solenoid was working correctly - so went ahead and took apart valve body by unscrewing the four 1/2 bolts that hold body together - not much in their - a diaphragm, a spring, an o-ring - found small piece of grit or debris in valve body - no other issue found. decided to put body back together and test.

Step 6 - used battery in car to actuate valve body, and confirmed that it was now working correctly by attempting to blow through valve - seemed to be working.

Step 7 - reinstall by removing plugs, putting valve back in, connecting electrical wires - tested operation and found normal operation.

Key Findings:
- If you have electric fill valve, look to see in the water pump compartment if you have a valve you can close to isolate the fill valve from the system, if you have it hat is a good thing.
- If you don't have the bypass, your can make do in the short term by removing the valve and capping the pex on the input and output side of valve
- if solenoid seems to be working, take apart valve body - not a big deal to disassemble, clean and reassemble
- if you can't fix, you can probably order one from a supplier on the web.

Net, I had to fix or didn't have any water in coach. MOT answered a call on Sunday and started me in the right direction. Valve in an inconvenient place, didn't have an isolation valve. Removed valve and capped off the inlet and outlet - water system in coach worked as normal - no way to fill tank at this point. Tear into valve - find it simple to work on - fix, clean, reinstall.

PITA due to access, simple other than that.

Re: When your water fill valve stops working

Reply #1 – October 04, 2011, 12:22:59 pm

Tim, I for one, surely appreciate your info on the fill valve, will keep this info handy as feel my 01 320 should be about the exact same.
Thanks again'
Dave M

Re: When your water fill valve stops working

Reply #2 – October 04, 2011, 01:40:53 pm

I removed the electric water fill valve and replaced it with a "powered by armstrong" globe valve, which can be throttled to control the numer of gallons per minute.
This allows me to fill water tank but still have enough water pressure to take a shower.
Also, I do not like overfilling and dumping water in the water tank bay.
I watch a clear tube water level which I installed to see how fast tank is filling and set a timer.

I also permanently removed the rug covered plywood which masked the black & gray tanks because when I close the door the tanks are out of sight, but, when I open the door I want to see the tanks.

I reused the electric water fill valve to create a kitchen hot water bypass back to the water tank so that water does not have to be wasted when first turning on the hot tap at the sink on a frosty morning.

Re: When your water fill valve stops working

Reply #3 – October 04, 2011, 06:29:37 pm

When our water fill valve started misbehaving, we had MOT install a new one. The problem turned out to be a bad check valve ... that took us 5 weeks to locate ... hidden behind a panel in the interior of the coach!

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