36CKTS waste plumbing

[NMWildcat]

I had one very long cable that got hard to open/close about 9 months after we bought trailer. Like everyone else has said, the valve was good, but the cable was frozen.

I decided to do it myself and found the cable had several bad bends in it. So I replaced (valve and cable are one piece) and rerouted the cable better. No problems now for five years.

[Jokerbgood]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

I had one very long cable that got hard to open/close about 9 months after we bought trailer. Like everyone else has said, the valve was good, but the cable was frozen.

I decided to do it myself and found the cable had several bad bends in it. So I replaced (valve and cable are one piece) and rerouted the cable better. No problems now for five years.

We had the same problem. It’s unbelievable how many people have had issues with the cables on the black and gray water tanks.[emoji35]

[DKRITTER]

It seems we are working on the trailer between cold fronts.

I was able to get the cable completely off of the black tank valve, it's the lowest and the only one of the three (my luck) where the screw and allen bolt were pointing down.

When the scientists at CC installed the cable and valve they first, used a cable several feet to long. I guess 1 size fits all.
Then in-order to "make it work" the Phd's ran it out of the bulkhead then turning 90+ degrees (didn't need to) then went a couple of feet and turned an opposite 90+ (again didn't need to) then it made a full 360 degree circle and finally over to the valve. Anyone who could fog a mirror could see it wouldn't work.

After getting the cable out and somewhat straightened it actually operated fairly well.

I ordered 3 72" Valterra solid wire replacement cables which should be here in a few days. I decided to do all three right whether we keep or git rid of this POS. Here's a link; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HSO0H5E

If I had to guess I'll have to take the valves/manifold apart in-order to access the area of the valve to change the cable. It'll be a couple of weeks before I get back up under the trailer.

There is/was nothing wrong with the actual valves or cables (except the one that broke) once I had everything straightened out.

Folks I'm sorry to beat this dead horse but I have lost count on the things I have had to fix on this thing that were 100% due to poor workmanship. Just some guy slapping a trailer together who didn't give 2 $#'&$ about it and a corporation who supports that.

[mlatter]

I am interested in what you're doing, and feel your pain.
If you get a chance, I'd appreciate an update when you fix it as to the amount of trouble it is to fasten the new cable to the old valve. If it is too much trouble, I see you can buy the cable and valve assembly for not too much more money. Also, I'll be interested to hear if the 72" length is optimal.

Cheers.

[DKRITTER]

The old cables were/are a little over 8’ Long. They should have been 2-3’ shorter.

The cable sheath goes into a small black rectangular block and it’s held in by an Allen head set screw from the top.
The block sits in a bracket and secured by a screw which is a few inches up from the valve.
The wire cable goes thru all this then secures to a cable lock at the end of the valve rod.

When I go to put it back together I’ll take several pictures.

[DKRITTER]

Well, we finally had a pretty day to finish repairing the waste valve cables.

I had decided to replace all 3 valves with new Valterra valves and cables but decided to abandon that when we got it all apart and there are 2 bolts you can't get out because of the way they glued the plumbing. In the picture below of the manifold you'll notice one of the bolts, the other was in the upper pipe leading to the galley on the pipe side.

Also take note how the 1 1/2" valves oppose each other, this made it very difficult to say the least.

We took the old LaSalle valves cleaned and lubed them then measured the cable because we needed to cut off the black sheath on all the cables. Note the finish nail on the table, it's about the same size as the new wire cable so I inserted a nail when I cut the sheath so it wouldn't deform.

We used silicone grease on all of the gaskets and really took our time to make sure we didn't pinch any of them.

(If you'll take a look at the top pipe in one of the pictures there is a cleanout there and absolutely no way to get to it.)

I included a couple of pictures to show how well the folks a FR are about running both electrical and hydraulic systems in a trailer.

Bottom line once again I am spending a lot of time and effort repairing something someone else did haphazardly.

My apologies some of the images are not rotated correctly, they didn't start out that way and I'm not sure how to correct it.