Drain Valve Lube
I used Silicone spray on the valves in the old trailer to keep the seals from sticking. They were readily accessible. The new trailer has them stuck way up in the covered "basement". IIRC somebody ...
Forum Discussion
oxygen wrote:
Not wanting to go outside this morning and check the valve, due to snow and cold, do you not need to open the valve cover or can you spray it into the opening ,the rod used to open the valve, the rod fits into?
I did this after cleaning and flushing the tanks thoroughly. Afterwards I left the valve open, with the valve blade pulled all the way back, and wiped down and dried the rubber O-rings that the blade slides through. Then I sprayed silicone on both the inside and ouside rubber O-rings and closed the valve/blade.
If the the valves are accessible, it's also easy to disassemble the valves (there's only 4 ? bolts) and remove the O-rings for cleaning and spraying with silicone.
But I think you are referring to where the shaft runs into the valve. There's probably another small O-ring in there, and yes, I would spray the metal shaft with silicone and work it in and out several times to get the silicone down into the shaft O-ring in the valve. This shaft O-ring cannot be removed from the housing, AFAIK.
I had one shaft O-ring get totally gummed up once and no amount of lube would fix it. So a whole new valve was required. I suspect it was sand and road grime that got in there. With the new trailer, I'm hoping that this will not happen as the whole valve is protected in the covered "basement", and I doubt that any lube dumped in the drains will get to that shaft O-ring and keep it lubricated. We'll see ...
