galley holding tank drain handle

The handle pull for the galley holding tank on my Crusader 285RET fell off somewhere along the road. When I went to dump I couldn't find the handle in the wheel well where it is suppose to be. Afetr double checking I found the handle was gone and the rod it was attached to was inside the frame, only accessible through a hole in the metal of about 1 1/2 inch diameter. I bought a generic replacement handle but was only able to install after fulling the rod out of the hole in the wheel well with a pair of pliers. However, now the handle does not go in far enough to completely close the valve. The ends of the handle do not fit inside the hole in the wheel well. My question is if there is a special handle pull required here that has a longer neck to allow the valve to close completely?