Black tank slide valve

Topic: Black tank slide valve (Read 1924 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #25 – May 28, 2016, 11:34:55 am

Larry, if I understand correctly you do not have cable valve releases. Your valves are activated by a solid rod like mine. Is that correct? If so just remember you will need to reuse the rod with the new valve and I would use the metal handle you now have rather than the plastic one that will come with your new valve. However, be sure to save the plastic handle for future use.

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #26 – May 28, 2016, 01:10:12 pm

I have heard of folks dumping a quart or two of the cheapest vegetable oil they can find into the empty tanks and then adding some water to the tank. Then dump quickly opening and closing the valves several times to lube the seals with veg oil. It might help for a while.

If you have the valves apart or are putting in new ones use a liberal amount of waterproof silicone plumber's grease on all of the rubber parts and the slide part of the valve. I don't think you can use too much. It is no fun doing it later.

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #27 – May 29, 2016, 09:31:32 am

Kent,
Thanks for the reminder. Went to AZ mobile repair to see if they had a new valve in stock. Got all the parts I need. The new valve has a metal handle with it

. I will be sure to save all of the old parts of the handle for future emergencies. While talking to the tech, he showed me that there is an end cap which should be removable allowing me to look inside where the rod goes through. If I can get the cap off, I hope to be able to see if the rod is unscrewed or broken. If unscrewed, thread lock and go (no play on words). If it is broken, I hope to be able to reach the sliding blade with long nose pliers and slide the valve open to drain.

In either case, I need to be hooked up to sewer. With the big weekend, we had to move to a spot without the sewer hookups. Hopefully on Tuesday one will become available. Of course, the weeks weather looks quite uncooperative. At least it isn't in the middle of winter

Thanks to Roger on the suggestion of the plumbers grease. I wouldn't have given it a thought. I like preventative maintenance.

Larry Warren

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #28 – May 29, 2016, 09:42:20 am

Larry, only use Threadloc if you never want it to come apart (assuming you are using the permanent stuff).
When assembling machines where vibration could cause nuts or set screws to come loose we would put silicone sealer on the threads. Holds but still removable.

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #29 – May 29, 2016, 02:47:09 pm

Quote from: Roger & Susan in Home2 – May 28, 2016, 01:10:12 pm

If you have the valves apart or are putting in new ones use a liberal amount of waterproof silicone plumber's grease on all of the rubber parts and the slide part of the valve. I don't think you can use too much. It is no fun doing it later.

Plus 2 on silicone grease. Oatey 40610 Hercules Plumber's Silicone Grease - Power Tool Lubricants -...

see ya
ken

As an Amazon Associate Foretravel Owners' Forum earns from qualifying purchases.

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #30 – May 30, 2016, 09:20:08 am

Good point on the threadlock. I would hate to break a good valve blade unnecessarily in the future trying to get it loose. Also, I cant find the threadlock. Must be in storage. But the silicone is in sight

Larry

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #31 – May 31, 2016, 05:55:54 pm

Let the games begin. Was able to move to sewer hookup. No leakage

Removed last screws for bottom panel. Wasn't able to move panel out of the way enough to work on so elected to remove section of fiberglass panel directly in line with Valterra valve. Tried popping cap off of valve, didn't budge. decided to try to drill and tap 2 holes above and below valve handle and make a puller. Drilled (2) 1/8" holes. Bad news. First smelly leakage from bottom hole (hopefully not a boding of things to come), second, the cap is too thin to properly take a tap.

Decided to open top hole for visual inspection. Routered it open enough to see inside. I can see the end of the steel rod with a chunk of broken plastic attached. Bummer. Can't rethread. I spent the rest of the afternoon gathering tools to dissect tomorrow. I will first disconnect the faucet, water inlet and black tank flush fittings so I can move the bottom panel out of the way. I will cut the valve in two and try to pull the blade to drain. Hopefully without incident.

Once drained, flushed, drained, flushed (you get the picture) it should be a simple 4 bolt job, cut the pipe, remove 2", rubber coupling, reinstall valve, put back together. Not to bad of a job if you say it fast enough

Wish me luck. I will try to take pictures. They might be helpful to someone else, or amusing to most, depending on the outcome.

Thanks,
Larry Warren

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #32 – June 02, 2016, 03:06:59 pm

Success!!!!!!! and with only minor casualties. After disconnecting the water fill, water faucett and tank flush lines, I removed the panel. I left the 50 amp elec line hooked up and set the panel on the ground next to the coach. I used a rotozip tool to cut the valve in halve so I could better see inside. This showed that the blade had broken and not unscrewed. With the style of handle, there were no threads. Instead the handle is held in place with plastic clips which snap into a groove cut into the handle. This allows it to rotate freely.

When I couldn't get hold of the blade because of too tight an area, I routed out grooves in the outer frame of the valve on both sides, top and bottom. With these grooves, I could grip the blade with 2 pair of needle nose pliers. A cautious pull and we had flowin matter. Unfortunately, some of the flow was through the blade opening. I had some rags handy to stuff into the sides, so the overflow was limited to probably less than a quart. With 40+ gallons to drain, it could have been worse. Once drained, I flushed the bay floor out as best I could with fresh water. I know that this let water drain through the floor, but have left bay doors open as much as possible to dry.

The old bolts had rust on the heads for them from previous leakage. 3 bolts came quietly, but the 4th (back side bottom, of course) snapped when I began to loosen it. It showed a lot of rust through out the entire length. Since I was using a 1/4 ratchet, I know that I didn't apply that much pressure, so it was in bad shape already. I didn't have enough room to drive the bolt out with a straight pin and hammer, so I opted to cut out 1" of waste line downstream of the valve. It fell apart after that.

When reinstalling the new valve, I first slid the flex rubber coupling on the stationary part of the line, and then used the plumbers grease on the seals. For anyone new to this, use plenty of grease. I first greased the valve with the seal out, inserted the seal, then greased the seal. By doing this, the grease held the seal in place while installing the valve onto the drain line. New bolts, slide the coupling on and tighten, and voila, no leaks.

I used the tank flush to fill the tank 1/2 way and test. The only problem this showed was where the tank flush goes into the top of the black tank, I had leaking water. It appears that the screws have rusted, letting the connection to loosen and leak. This should be an easy fix which I
can do before reinstalling the upper panel.

We have a happy female camper (male one too). This was not that bad of a fix, if you have the power tools to do the cutting. The rotozip made simple work of the finite cutting, and a sawzall worked on cutting the drain line.

Again, my thanks and gratitude for those whose advice has gone before me. In my situation (yours may be different) I am especially grateful for the advice on cutting the section of drain line out, and the application of plumbers grease. Those 2 things saved me countless hours of stress, anxiety and prepared me to be able to purchase in advance the necessary item. I only made 1 trip to the store that I didn't need to. (My normal plumbing jobs require 3-5 trips).

I am going to attempt to insert pictures, hope it works and hope it can help someone.

Thanks again to the great members of this awsome forum.
Larry

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #33 – June 02, 2016, 03:08:32 pm

I couldn't get the last picture in, so here it is.

Larry

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #34 – June 02, 2016, 03:58:31 pm

Is the length of the handle and shaft going to work?

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #35 – June 02, 2016, 06:32:43 pm

Looking at the photo the top of valve is flush with bottom angle that panel is fastened too and there is about a 1/4" gap on handle shaft so my guess is it will just do.
One thing I guess you did Larry was clean up all that crap out of that whole compartment before replacing panels etc. I also do not like the valve being 90 deg from vertical as I seem to remember that they say max 2 oclock position from 12. FT put it the way you have done so it did last a long time.
JohnH

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #36 – June 04, 2016, 09:23:57 am

Craneman, yes it fits just right. I didn't have to add an extension for the black valve, but the grey will need the extension whenever I replace it.

John, yes I have flooded the compartment 3 times to make sure it is cleaned out. I haven't put the panels back in permanent yet. I am verifiying no leakage and I want to fix the tank flush hose before buttoning things up.

Larry

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #37 – June 04, 2016, 09:29:37 am

Larry, you might want to give the interior a nice heavy coat of Turtle Wax Ice or equivalent so any cleaning down the road is easier.
Turtle Wax makes an Interior spray that would work, in that you just spray it on and let it dry.

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #38 – June 04, 2016, 01:44:52 pm

I am sure that removing the bottom panel made everything easier. But we have changed the sewer valves without removing the bottom panel, just the top panel.

We also permanently left the top panel off so we can easily check for water & holding tank leaks. All of our tank covers make the bay looks nice, but really serve to hide problems that we should be aware of.

Changing both gray & black valves at same time also make the job a little easier.

We found that periodic pouring large bottles of vegetable oil into an empty gray & black tank, letting it flow for 10 minutes to back of closed drain valves, and then quickly and partially open & close valves, eliminates tight & leaking valves. So we have not had to change valves in many years. When they feel tight, we pour and for many weeks, the valves slip open & close like new. We do not add water to oil before draining oil out.

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #39 – June 04, 2016, 06:14:21 pm

Or you could reconfigure the panels to make accessing the waste plumbing easy as I, Barry B., Richard Bark, and now John H. have done

I can easily access the waste plumbing by removing 5 screws. I can also reach in through the vent to feel if it is high and dry back there without removing anything... Just saying! One of the best upgrades I have done.
Don

Quote from: Barry & Cindy – June 04, 2016, 01:44:52 pm

I am sure that removing the bottom panel made everything easier. But we have changed the sewer valves without removing the bottom panel, just the top panel.

We also permanently left the top panel off so we can easily check for water & holding tank leaks. All of our tank covers make the bay looks nice, but really serve to hide problems that we should be aware of.

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #40 – June 05, 2016, 09:45:04 am

Nitehawk, thanks for the idea. I will do that next time I am in the area. I will probably change out the gray valve as a preventative measure in the near future when I am in a better setting. It hasn't been tight so I hope it isn't in the same condition as the black was.

Barry. It sounds like the vegetable oil is a good idea which I can start making a regular practice. Thanks.

Don, I was thinking about your nice sheet metal works when I was removing my panels. I decided to put it on the bucket list. Not sure when it will be done, but it sure makes for a much cleaner look.

Thanks again to all the members of this forum. Couldn't do it without your insight, wisdom and support.

Larry

Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 21, 2025 ...

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #25 – May 28, 2016, 11:34:55 am

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #26 – May 28, 2016, 01:10:12 pm

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #27 – May 29, 2016, 09:31:32 am

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #28 – May 29, 2016, 09:42:20 am

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #29 – May 29, 2016, 02:47:09 pm

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #30 – May 30, 2016, 09:20:08 am

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #31 – May 31, 2016, 05:55:54 pm

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #32 – June 02, 2016, 03:06:59 pm

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #33 – June 02, 2016, 03:08:32 pm

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #34 – June 02, 2016, 03:58:31 pm

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #35 – June 02, 2016, 06:32:43 pm

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #36 – June 04, 2016, 09:23:57 am

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #37 – June 04, 2016, 09:29:37 am

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #38 – June 04, 2016, 01:44:52 pm

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #39 – June 04, 2016, 06:14:21 pm

Re: Black tank slide valve

Reply #40 – June 05, 2016, 09:45:04 am

Affiliate Notice