Dead Head

[Peggie Hall]

It's leaking where the 1.5" waste hose connects to the toilet. 

Iow, where the discharge fitting connects to the pump housing?  I suspected as much. It's one of three things...and the following applies to ALL manual toilets:

1. The flange on the joker valve is the gasket that creates the seal between the discharge fitting and the pump housing. OVERtightening the screws will pucker that gasket, causing the connection to leak.  So unless doing that has permanently puckered the joker valve, backing out the screws a quarter turn should stop the leak. If it doesn't try soaking the joker valve in boiling water for a few minutes to see if it fixes the pucker. If it doesn't, it'll cost you new joker valve.

When you attach the discharge fitting, just tighten the screws enough to start to feel a little tight...flush the toilet. If it doesn't leak, they're tight enough. If it does, tighten NO MORE THAN another quarter turn. Flush again...and keep tightening NO MORE THAN a quarter turn till the leak stops.

2. You used a straight fitting where a 90 is needed, causing the hose to pull to one side, lifting the fitting on the other side.

Replace the fitting with a 90 to relieve the stress.


3..  You overtightened the screws enough to crack the pump housing. Easy to do on a Jabsco toilet, but possible on any toilet if you crank 'em down hard enough.

Only cure is a new toilet pump.  :cry4

NEVER use ANY pipe dope, or any other sealant in a sanitation system!  And while a heat gun should be used only by someone who's highly skilled with one, a blow dryer is safe (unless you're brain dead!) and a lot easier to use than boiling water.

[Ron Hill]

Guys : I'm heading for another "RON, RON'" from Peggy !!

I use non harding pipe dope on any water fitting that will not seal itself with just a snug tightened hose clamp.  It's better than overtightening the hose clamps!!  It's best the also stagger the hose clamps if space allows and have the hose clamp over a barb rib.

As I said WARM water is best for softening hose NOT boiling water. 

[Stu Jackson]

Well I learned a lesson today--never question the queen of sanitation... my lovely new white hoses leak at the toilet.  Even with 2 hose clamps on it... I'll try using the heat gun to see if it will seal better... I'm sure if it was a Raritan it wouldn't have leaked!

Gee, seems like a little thread drift here.  Surprised you're not complaining about it...

Nice "signature" BTW...

If it was a Raritan, it would've leaked a bit at first, but then been cured by turning 1/4 a turn on the hose clamps, just like Peggie says...

Sorry to hear about your transmission problem.

[Peggie Hall]

Not the hose clamps, Stu...it's over-tightening the SCREWS that hold the discharge fitting on the pump body that cause the gasket (joker valve flange) to pucker and leak.. 

[scotty]

Gee, seems like a little thread drift here.  Surprised you're not complaining about it...

Talk about "thread drift", from the title I thought we were discussing the Grateful Dead, not the Grateful Head.

[noworries]

Well technically I didn't hijack it... I just casually mentioned mine leaked and wanted to undo the bad karma for questioning Peggy's wisdom.

Besides us Jabsco toilet equipped C34s in Long Beach have to stick together!

I'm going down to the boat today... hopefully I'll figure it out.  I don't think I cracked anything, so I'm guessing it's just an overtightening issue, or I'll try either hot water from the shower or the heat gun (carefully)

That and I'm flushing the tranny to see if it helps... not looking forward to that!

BTW 2nd wish if you are in Shoreline I probably have a hole saw you can borrow, save ya the $18.

[David Urscheler]

I'm with Peggy. I went with the PHC conversion kit and couldn't be happier! The difference between it and a Jabsco in flushing is like night and day. The shorter handle fits perfectly in the same location.

[Ron Hill]

Guys and Peggy : I don't know about other head companies, but Jabsco uses a stainless self tapping screw to hold things together!!  These strange threaded screw go into a plastic mating piece together and make their own threads.

The problems come with reassembly - it's NOT overtightening that gets people in trouble.  If you don't get that screw started correctly it will litterally make some new threads and totally "clean out that hole" so there are NO threads at all.

What I do is to start the screw with my fingers by turning backwards until I feel the "click" to let me know the screw is in the old thread.  Then tighten with your fingers a couple of turns.  THEN use a hand screwdriver and NEVER use and electric screwdriver. 
As Peggy mentioned - don't over tighten.   A few thoughts

[noworries]

I had to take one of the hose clamps off to get it to stop leaking

[Roc]

I forget where I recently read this, but someone drilled a hole through the plastic and just used a nut and bolt to put the Jabsco parts together (for the very reason that it became stripped).

[2ndwish]

noworries-We had exactly the same leak problem. The Jabsco tailpiece fitting to the 1.5 inch hose is flawed (the round injection mold mark is on the sealing face) making it nearly impossible to seal with a hose clamp. We used a new hose from W-M which simply would not seal. Ron's suggestion makes sense to me. We played with it for an hour and eventually went back to the old hose to actually seal it. I have no doubt that it will begin to leak again at the most inopportune moment. I am now equipped with a 2.5 " hole saw. We will be at Catalina this weekend.
T

[noworries]

I think I recall seeing a faint line from the injection mold... I'll try sanding it down if it leaks again... SO TIRED of dealing with it.. the boat stinks again... going to have to thoroughly clean once I'm sure it's done leaking.  SO TIRED of cleaning.

We won't be back to Catalina until the rendezvous.  We're hosting a boat for transpac and seeing them off on the 4th. 

Hope ya have no head issues at the island!  Have a good trip!

[Ron Hill]

I'm glad that Roc tweaked my brain.  I put a "Tip" in the Mainsheet tech notes on using a nut and bolt to hold head pieces together when the plastic is stripped. 
I've done it a couple of times myself -- it works in stopping the leaks!!