grey water valve

trdeal

Past North Carolina Chapter Leader
Tried to dump my grey water number 2 tank today, and the valve would not open.The handle pulled out, but it did not have the same feel as usual. I guess that I may have a cable loose at the valve, but I don't know.I have not been under the camper yet. Is this a big job to try and fix? Does anyone have any other suggestions on what my problem might be? Thanks
trdeal
 

Wild Wind

Active Member
Drain valve release cables breaking

My Black Water tank Valve/ Handle cable did the samething. I am not sure, wheither the set screw in the vatve mech. came loose , or the valve broke, or the cable broke. The underside must be removed to fix the valve however. You should look under "Search" for removing underbelly, holding tanks, plumbing, etc.
E-mail me, and I can sent you a good picture of the Black Holding Tank Valve cable Assembly. When, ours broke, on the way home from Floridia, I had to make an out of the way trip to Camper's World:mad: :mad: and install a valve, #278688SCR+SRQB (see JP Morgan's posts), where the drain hose hooks up. Everyone should have a valve there as a precausion.:D
 

RickNB

Well-known member
TRDEAL

Check out my post of earlier today. It appears that the cable assembly is the problem you think that you are opening and closing the valve but all your doing is pushing and pulling the handle but it does not feel right. It looks to be a bigger job to get the access to replace the cable than just replacing the cable . Just my opinion but I think ther is a design flaw in either the cables or the routing of them. My unit is only 3 months old
 

cdbMidland

Past Michigan Chapter Leader
Had the same problem with my gray #1 today when I was dumping all of the tanks. Fortunately (maybe), it is in the open position, so we can use the shower and lavatory. However, I am concerned when it is time to dump the black tank that it will flow into gray #1 - probably undesireable. This is where I need your advice.
Not interested in having to drop the underbelly as I will have to drive this home in another couple of months - about 1350 miles.
We are located about 22 miles from Camping World, so I could make an appointment there for repair sometime - depending upon the severity of the problem.
Internet connection is so erratic at the park here that searches are tough to do, as Wild Wood suggests.
Any suggestions? Valves are in a separate compartment just before the wheel opening on our unit - open on the bottom so I can see the valve where it goes into the frame, but nothing beyond that, so I don't know if I have a loose cable fitting or a broken cable.
 

RickNB

Well-known member
cdbMidland

I am not familiar with the layout of the Landmark dump valves as I am with the Sundance but I will assume that you can see the actual drain pipe come down through the underbelly this will give you a pretty good indication of the location of the valve that the handle and cable assembly open and close when you pull or push it. In order to gain access to mine I cut the underbelly material from its edge next to the frame towards the center of the trailer about 12 inches in. Basicaly making 2 slits so that the underbelly material could be pulled down and be able to see inside. The end of the cable is held to the valve with a allen screw this may be loose and allow the cable to slip. If so its a 30 sec fix. If its not that then the cable has probably seperated from the handle end requiring that a new cable assembly be installed again this is not a big job its just to get at it. The slits in mine after repair were taped togeather with eternabond tape that stuff will hold anything and the area was not that big anyway. Hope this helps.

Have Fun
Rick
 

trdeal

Past North Carolina Chapter Leader
cdbMidland said:
Had the same problem with my gray #1 today when I was dumping all of the tanks. Fortunately (maybe), it is in the open position, so we can use the shower and lavatory. However, I am concerned when it is time to dump the black tank that it will flow into gray #1 - probably undesireable. This is where I need your advice.
Not interested in having to drop the underbelly as I will have to drive this home in another couple of months - about 1350 miles.
We are located about 22 miles from Camping World, so I could make an appointment there for repair sometime - depending upon the severity of the problem.
Internet connection is so erratic at the park here that searches are tough to do, as Wild Wood suggests.
Any suggestions? Valves are in a separate compartment just before the wheel opening on our unit - open on the bottom so I can see the valve where it goes into the frame, but nothing beyond that, so I don't know if I have a loose cable fitting or a broken cable.
In my case the cable housing had pulled out of the handle. The cable itself was still attached on both ends . My fix was to take the handle assembly out and bore a small hole where the cable housing pushes up into the handle. Don't bore to deep or you will bore through the cable. Push the housing up into the handle and then screw a small set screw into the hole. This worked for me until I could get the handle assembly replaced. I did partially drop the underbelly, just enough to see that the cable was still attached at the valve. It really wasn't that bad of a job. Hope this helps.
 

cdbMidland

Past Michigan Chapter Leader
Thanks for the replies. Saundra and I were on a 4-night cruise and got back yesterday and no internet was available at the park last night. Tomorrow, I'll start at the handle and then go underneath. Would definitely like to fix it before I have to dump the black water as I would hate to have that crap running into grey 1.
 

jpmorgan37

Well-known member
Chuck;
If you can't get the valve fixed before you dump the Black Water Tank, just keep water running into the Gray tank while dumping and that will keep the black water from backing up into the gray tank.
John
 

cdbMidland

Past Michigan Chapter Leader
John, thanks for the comment - it was exactly what I thought I'd do if the previous comments didn't work.

This morning I cut the underbelly material as Rick had suggested. Due to the hoses right by the frame, I had to cut across the two slits about a foot from the frame so I could drop it down there and see what I had. All three valves are on cables. The cable for gray #1 I could not get to, but apparently it came loose from the frame. I was able to hold the cable housing and push the valve and close it. So, temporarily, that is taken care of until I dump again - then I'll have to repeat the procedure to close it again.

The valve handle has a 15/16" very thin nut holding it in place. I could not get a crescent wrench on it and I did not have a wrench that size, so I'm going to check around the campground later today (today is golf day)and see if someone has one to see if I can loosen and pull the valve handle away from the frame to reattach the cable housing.

One other possibility would be to cut the drain and install a manual valve on it, but I'm leaving that as a last resort.

Anyway, that's where I am now with this.
 

osims

bsims
I had the same problem with black water valve, the cable housing was crimped into the piece that is attached to the frame with that small nut. I had to get behind the frame and remove the nut back there and let nut slide down cable housing, when the whole assembly came out Islide cable housing back and recrimped. The part you have to crimp is very thick, I crimped it very gently with a large pair of bolt cutters. Hope this helps , we to were away from home when this happened.
 

cdbMidland

Past Michigan Chapter Leader
Couldn't get at the back nut that osims mentioned, but used the 15/16' wrench to loosen the threaded sleeve from the front where it is attached to the frame (I had thought it was just a nut) and I pulled the valve handle out far enough so I can get at the cable. Now I can open and close the valve holding onto the cable housing until I find something to crimp the cable housing where it came loose from the valve handle (or try the drilling techhnique that trdeal mentioned).
 

RickNB

Well-known member
Glad you were able to get a temp fix for that nasty problem it seems like there is a lot of us that has had the same problem. The service guy when he fixed mine moved the handle over directly in front of the black tank valve so now the cable is only about 6 inches long. I think part of the problem is the cable in some cases is very long with a lot of sharp bends in it to get to its final point puting a lot of pressure on the cable and pushing it out of the compression fastening. Mine has worked great since they moved it.

Have Fun
Rick
 

DougLynne

retired Alberta Chapter Leaders
I'm having problems with Grey #2. It seems very spongy when I pull it out and all it does is dribble out at most. The feel in the other 2 valves is totally different. Wonder why this is such a common problem. If I can cripple along along until the Rally, maybe I can get this fixed in Goshen. I don't have the tools & supplies (tape for underbelly) to try this myself.../Doug
 

Loco

Well-known member
doug,
I have Cyclone and all of my cables were to long and they felt the same way you say yours do. I had to cut them down to the right lenth and now they work great. I have some pictures of before and after in the Cyclone photo area and one named under side rebuild I think. I have many treads with pictures. I know our rigs are not the same type. But the under side workings are the same.
 

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nhunter

Well-known member
Have you ever thought of going to work for Heartland on a QC consulting basis. I really like the clean up job you have done on your trailer.
 
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