difficult gate valve

WD40 or eq on the valve shaft. C r a p pie is a fish.

I would use silicone spray.

I agree with the silicone spray.

I wonder how many good words could be censored in one post?

I pulled the bottom down and replaced the valve with an electric one. When I cleaned to old one it worked fine but the stuff in it would have never cleaned up without taking the valve out.

I had a similar issue and pulled the Coroplast down to see what was going on. The cables for the valves were all a good 6-8 feet longer than needed. When push or pulled the handle the cable would move instead of the valves. I zip tied the cables to frame supports and they now work perfect. Just a thought on something to check.

We had the same problem and no matter how much we lubricated it it didn't help. Our only solution was to have the dealer replace it and now it works just fine.

I have a grey valve like that.... no sense in each of us having a hard to work valve, so I have a solution.... I'll swap you my bad grey valve for your good grey valve? No? Hmmmm, I didn't think so.

Seriously, I tried silicone spray, WD-40, vaseline where I could reach it.
Guess my only solution is to get it replace or try the above suggestion to see if it can be shortened.

I have the same problem with my black valve, hard to pull and I sure as hell don't want to break it. My 2 gray valves are stiff but pull far easier than the black. Would spraying the exposed rod (about 6 inches) at the front of the handle help ?

I have had the same problem with the black tank. I have found that putting about 1/2 a bottle of cooking oil in an empty black tank followed by about 5 full flushes of the toilet (approx 5 gallons). Then work the valve handle in and out as the oily water passes. This solves the problem for us for about 3 weeks (we fultime 4 months of the year) . Then repeat. It seems that the rubber in the gate valve hardens and isn't as slippery as it should be and the oil fixes it for a while

Halmfamily wrote:
I had a similar issue and pulled the Coroplast down to see what was going on. The cables for the valves were all a good 6-8 feet longer than needed. When push or pulled the handle the cable would move instead of the valves. I zip tied the cables to frame supports and they now work perfect. Just a thought on something to check.

There may be nothing wrong with the valve.

As indicated above, it's a common problem due to installers who don't care.
Even when the length is correct, often the cable routing is bad - and will cause kinks after a number of years.

Also a bit of slack in the cable (within the sheath) has caused the kink. Every time it was pushed in - it "bottoms out" (nowhere to go) until the outer sheath kinks.

No harm in trying the WD40, silicone, etc. - but usually no amount of lube will solve the problem.

Unfortunately, you - or a repair facility - need to check it - which means the cable from the handle to the valve.

Alternate solution "the way it used to be".......put a valve in the 3" line - where you can actually reach the valve with *no* cable.

Then leave the "distant" valve open.

BTW - electric valves are *not* the solution - just an alternative to the manual (pull cable) type.
*Both* types of remote valves are a "PITA" to get at for repairs..:(

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