Fun / Projects / with my 1997 America Dream

Time to finish up a project that I started yesterday.

When I removed the winterize port from the water city water station the "gasket between the pipe and the port fitting disintegrated. I was unable to get a new one at Home Depot as urethane pipe is not code here and they had no fittings.

I went to a plumbing store today and got several candidates, the replacement parts are on the left and the pieces of the old gasket are on the right. I was able to see what it should look like when I remove the city water port.



This is the pipe that the washer needs to go into, not sure how to get a good picture of this, note that there is a feral inside the castle nut that the washer sits on.



This is the end of the port fitting.



After several different test fits I though tis washer fit best and had no leaks. I know on the end of the fitting is does not look right as it is balanced there, but when slid over the pipe it is held in place and fits nice.



Here the washer is slid onto the pipe end. I know it is hard to see, but it fits very nice.



I lubed up the outside of the washer with a silicone grease to help the fitting go on without "bunching" up the washer. This silicone grease is made for o-rings.



The winterize port is threaded onto the pipe and taken just beyond hand tight.



The port is screwed to the station panel and this project is now done.

Quick project this time.

The loop on the awning strap on the bedroom awning broke off.

Went to An RV store and to my surprise they had on hand the correct strap from my awning manufacturer (CareFree). I did not go to CW because of the current problems which they still have not taken responsibilities for (description of CW problem).



The awning will not stay down without the loop on the end of this strap.



The instructions on the back of the replacement strap say 1)Roll awning out. 2)Move to one end of the awning and drill out the rivets attaching the end cap to the roller tube. 3)Slide end cap off of the roller tube. 3) slide the attached 3" vinyl bead into the open slot of the roller tube. 4) Rerivet the end cap to the roller tube.

Before you do that make sure you 1) have a rivet gun



2) It has the right size hole in the nozzle. This is an old Sears Craftsman rivet gun and has two different size nozzles, the large one is the correct one. If you do not have one I will propose a second method of doing this install at the end of this post.





On to the install.

To hold the awning down so I could work on it I used a ratchet strap.



This is the rivet in the end cap that must be drilled out.



This is the Window awning kit with the strap and the two rivets.



There will be two rivets 180 degrees apart on the roller tube, this is the one on the bottom.



Use a drill about the size of the rivet head and drill the head of the rivet out (the spring inside the tube will not unwind when both rivets are drilled out and the awning is held down in place by the ratchet strap.



And this is what it looks like with the rivet removed.



Now to drill out the top rivet.



Slide the end cap off the roller tube.



Slide the old strap out of the roller tube.



Now slide the new bead on the new strap into the slot on the roller tube (this takes a little juggling but is not hard).



Slide the end cap back onto the roller tube (again you do not have to worry about the spring unwinding as the other end of the awning is strapped down and cannot move).



Line up the holes in the roller tube with the slots in the end cap.



Insert the top replacement rivet.



I have always made it a practice to get all the fasteners in place before tightening anything, so the bottom rivet goes in place.



Now for the magic, bring out the pop rivet gun and cinch the rivets up.



Now the bottom one.



With a new strap that has a loop in the end of it the awning now can be deployed.



Do a test and roll it up and down a couple of times to make sure it is straight.







Ok...now for the promised second method.

If you do not have a rivet gun or do not want to drill out the rivets, what you can do is at one end or the other (and this is how the manual big awning worked on my MH before it was replaced with an electric one) take a Dremel tool with a conical bit and widen the slot in the roller tube for a length of 2 1/2 inches wide enough to accept the bead on the end of the pull strap. Slide the old strap down to the slot you just made and it will come out, slide the new strap bead into the slot and slide it to the center of the roller tube. So long as the strap is keep in the center of the tube and not at the end where you widened the slot it will never come out. If you need to replace it again, just slide it down to the end and it will come out and you can install the new one with no tools.





Just a thought.

Latest project.

The faucet/sprayer in the septic bay has been dripping and I wanted to fix it.

I did not take pictures as I took it apart, but did as I put it back together.

So if you want to take it apart and fix your just reverse the steps.

this is the faucet knobs and valves taken completely apart.

Everything is plastic and everything can almost be done by hand. The only thing I really needed a wrench for was the fitting that had sealant on and it really should have had any on it.



Note the o-ring is broken here and that was my leak. It is not really an o-ring, but a o-band. Of course no one had it (special part)



I have a selection of o-rings and tried several, I put the whole thing back together to test for leaks several times, I finally ended up putting two o-rings on each valve. The o-ring in the center is the size I used. I had to stretch it over the valve and when two were put together it was almost the same as the o-band that came off.



The valve base is inserted into the valve case.



The plastic retaining nuts are screwed onto the valve bodies and the four notches are lined up with the four notches on the faucet base. You might need a wrench here to get the notches to line up. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN, if it is tight back off to the first notch, the o-rings are the seal not the tightness.



The plastic pieces next to the base are the nut retainers and slide over the nuts and snap into place.



Here the retainers are snapped over the retaining nuts.



I did put sealant on the treads that had sealant on when I took this apart, but hind sight says it is not needed.



When you assemble the valve bodies into the base make sure the thread are perpendicular to the base. I did not, had to take the whole thing back apart and put it back together correctly.



Now it is time to reassemble everything.



This is the plug that plugs into the back of the tank monitors.



And this is the back of the tank monitor.



These are the hot and cold water lines that connect to the valve bodies, note the rubber gaskets inside the connector, hand tighten only, no tools!, in th background is the black water tank, the line going into it is for flushing the tank.



This is the back side of the panel that holds the faucet, the sprayer, the water pump switch, and the tank monitor.



The check valve is now screwed into the outlet on the valve body. It has in it the same rubber washer pointed out above. That is why there is no need for the sealant on the treads.



Now attached is the hose for the sprayer, it is pictured with the 90 fitting facing down but that does not work, it must face up other wise it hit the black water tank and the panel will not go back in place.



This is the panel turned around so the front is facing out, tank monitor is not plugged in yet and the pipes are not hooked up yet.



The monitor has been snapped into its frame and the wire harness is plugged into the back of it (back side of the panel again).



And now the hardest part of this project. There is not a lot of room here and you want to be very careful not to cross thread the plastic connectors. Hand tighten only. As you can see it was hard to get a good picture.



Another shot, and now is the time to test it (pressurize the system and check for leaks. I let it sit pressurized and went and eat dinner to make sure I had no leaks.



The panel is now screwed back into place and the system is still pressurized, no leaks, no knobs as yet.



One knob screwed on the other waiting it's set screw.



Completed



A job well done if I say so myself.



I guess I will be spending more time doing this kind of stuff as I cannot find someone to do it RIGHT for me.

stugpanzer wrote:
I love following threads like this! I hope you don't mind but I, for one, would like to hear your awning story!

I'm running to get ready for this trip, I will post it later.

Ok...checked this morning and no leaks, the fitting on the bottom of the tank was damp, it is obvious that this has happened before as the 90 elbow below the fitting has the green crud on it. There were no drips from it at all (had paper towel below it to indicate drips and there were none).

I hand tighten that fitting just a touch more and will leave it until I return from this trip.

So...I wiped out the whole inside of the water station , looked really nice, and forgot to take a picture.

Cleaned up all the station panels and reinstalled them.



As you may have noticed I did not put back in the winterize connection, more on that in a minute.

Wiped out the compartment and put the bins back.



There was (as there always is) one casualty. The winterize connection must have had a plastic washer between the feral in the neoprene pipe and the pipe fitting. It is broken.





I went to Home Depot, but our area does not use neoprene pipe (not code) so they carry no parts for it. It is Sunday so all the RV supplies stores are close (well maybe not CW but with the current on going disagreement on the quality of work done on the last visit I'm not going there (Camping World Problem)





I'm thinking I could put an o-ring in there and it would work, but on Monday I should be able to locate the correct part from some place.

As it is the winterize connection and the ball valve inside the compartment is closed this does not present a problem a the present time, the system works without it.

Any ideas where I can get the parts?

I love following threads like this! I hope you don't mind but I, for one, would like to hear your awning story!

Ok...Learned some more stuff today/night.

When I put the MH into storage a mouth ago the water system was working fine.

I thought it would be a good idea to drain the tank while it sat.

Filled the tank today, and everything works off shore water.

Closed the bypass, disconnect the water, the pump runs but no water anywhere.

It seems to build air pressure, let it run and open a valve and air comes out for a short time.

It acts like the pump suction from the tank is not under water (tank is 3/4 full).



I got ambitious, took the covers of the water station.



The filter is not clogged, the pump sucks on the suction side and builds pressure on the pressure side.



Traced the plumbing and the feed line comes through the wall and appears to go into the bottom of the tank.

Removed that fitting and there is no water, tapped along the tank and the tank seems to be empty.



So I hooked things back up and filled until I got water out the over flow. The gauge read FULL a long time before the water came out of the over flow.

Are there internal baffles in the tank?

The only thing I can think is the sensor is at the front of the tank, the tank is very shallow and long (runs the entire length of the basement roof between the frame rails), and the RV is in my driveway which has a pretty good slope.



I'm starting to learn a lot about the systems in this RV.

I left the tank full, I'm sure now I will have a leak out of one of the fittings, I hate plumbing.

I'll check everything in the morning, if no leaks put it all back together. If not will have to drain the system, clean the fittings, use a little Teflon sealant on the inside of the pipe where it goes around the nipple. These are plastic fittings and only get tightened to three foot pounds.

After the manual awning was ripped off while traveling at 60 MPH (a whole story in itself) I had an electric one installed.

So far I love it.

I know what you mean, I would love to have a garage for mine. That way I could take my time and paint it over the winter. Unfortunately I don't have the room for another garage so I will just have to continue to plan my repairs/modifications around the weather.

Mike.

zmotorsports wrote:
Looks great Glenn. I love seeing someone taking care of their vehicles like that. Makes me feel like I am not so crazy all by myself.;)

Mike.

This weather has just been killing me, I want to do so much with the MH. I may have to think about a garage for it so I can work on it in the winter.