difficult gate valve

nscaler2 wrote:
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

I have a new valve that isn't yet installed. Don't see any rubber in it. Any oil dumped into the tank will float on top of the water and not do much unless the tank is empty.I finally crawled under mine and cut a hole in the Coroplast to gain access to the valve. I removed the cable from the valve which was easy with just a Phillips screwdriver and an Allen wrench. I then pulled the cable out of the housing. I shortened up the housing by about a foot with a cut off wheel in my Dremel. I greased up the cable and put it back in the housing and shortened it up as well with the Dremel. Then I lubed up the slide on the valve with some oil and worked it back and forth. Connected it back up and closed up the opening with Gorilla tape. Worked so well I did the other cables too. BIG improvement.

B.O.