Thursday, May 17, 2012

Rats! A Leaking toilet valve needs repair!

 When folks learn that we are RV fulltimers, they often say how wonderful it is to be on a fulltime vacation! While the fulltime RV lifestyle is indeed great, we still have to face common challenges, just like we did when we had the house. One of these is a leaking toilet! Rick noticed water near the back of the toilet and found that the water intake valve was leaking. Naturally, as you can see, the valve is located at the very back of the unit.

 Naturally, this means that you have to remove the toilet from the floor, which is not a difficult job, although a bit unpleasant. We made very sure to first carefully flush the black tank, then disconnect the water input lines (turn off the water first!).

 The toilet comes off easily after unbolting the two hold down nuts. Then, Rick could access the valve assembly seen here on the left side of the picture.

The valve assembly of our Thetford toilet is a two piece unit, with the water valve on the bottom and the actuating arm above it. 

 The valve, seen above, is actuated by the arm that inserts in the slot of the valve. When the toilet is flushed, the arm moves the slot, which allows the water to flow. The leak in our unit occurred in this valve area -- apparently a seal inside failed.
 Fortunately, a local RV dealer carried Thetford repair kits which included everything we needed. Rick was able to quickly replace the parts and replace the floor gasket to re-seat the toilet.

Success! We were happy to have the leak stopped and the toilet fully operational.