Thetford Aqua Magic Style Plus Toilet Repair

Red Bay, AL

It's been almost 3 weeks since I last posted a blog.  During that time we've moved from our winter home in Casa Grande, AZ to our present location in Red Bay, AL.  I'll detail the cross country drive in another blog post, but today's blog is about a repair to our toilet.  If you don't have the same style of toilet or little interest in repair or maintenance jobs, please feel free to move on to the next blog at this time.

Ok, for those few of you who have continued thus far let me explain.  A few days ago we noticed that the toilet in our MH appeared to be leaking at the base.  I first suspected that the seal had failed and that we were having sewage not properly find its way south into our black tank.

We have a Thetford Aqua Magic Style Plus toilet in this MH.  It has a china base with a foot pedal in front to activate the waste gate valve.  The model is #34421.

I began a closer examination of the source of the leak by removing the plastic shroud which surrounds the lower portion of the toilet. This picture shows the shroud already removed.

Looking to the rear of the toilet I discovered that when I depressed the foot pedal to open the waste gate slide inside the bowl, water was dripping from the part later identified as the water valve.  This leak was occurring every time the pedal was depressed.

After looking at the parts diagram on Thetford's site I concluded that the problem must lie in the water valve assembly itself.  Fortunately for me, I'm currently in Red Bay, AL (the home of Tiffin Motorhomes) and their parts store is very good.  I walked over to the store and purchased the toilet water valve kit (which also includes a new rubber floor seal, new screws to replace the valve, and a new clamp to re-attach a hose).  The Thetford part number is #34100.

So now my dilemma was to decide whether to attempt to replace the valve with the toilet still in position or remove the toilet completely to gain better access.  After trying to see behind the toilet using a mirror and flashlight, the choice was simple.  That toilet was coming out!

Actually, the removal of the toilet is very simple.  Shut off the water, unscrew the water line to the back of the toilet, and remove the nut on each side of the toilet base flange which holds it to the floor.  Here's what you're left with after the toilet has been removed.  The dirty rag to stuff into the waste line is VERY important!

Now that the toilet has been re-located to an easier place to work the job will go much quicker.  Here's a better look at the water valve assembly.

First, take a pair of pliers and remove the return spring from the metal rod on the lower portion of the assembly.

Next remove the 3 screws holding the valve assembly in place.

At this point the valve assembly can be pulled away from the rear of the toilet.

The drive arm is removed next by pulling the ball end of the cable (which attaches to the foot pedal) from the plastic slot and by rotating the drive arm to free it from the wire rod (shown near the bottom of the top circle).

Here's what the freed drive arm looks like after performing the above two tasks.

Installation of the new water valve and drive arm assembly is literally the reverse of the above instructions.  The really nice thing here is that Thetford includes instructions in the package to do exactly what I have shown above.

All that's left to do is to replace the toilet over the existing toilet floor bolts, hook up the water inlet line, and check your work for leaks.

The entire job from start to finish took less than 1 hour and I'm happy to report that I had no leaks after the repair (the first attempt, no less).  This is certainly a job which can be done by almost any MH owner.  Not only will you save labor costs, but you'll certainly get a better understanding of how this type of toilet works.

......and here's the end result.  A normally functioning toilet once again.  HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!

Thanks for dropping by to take a look!

A Bit of 'Learnin' and a Bit of Maintenance

Bushnell, FL

We arrived on Saturday at the Paradise Oaks Golf & RV Resort for a week-long educational seminar put on by Geeks on Tour (Chris and Jim Guld) and TechnoRV (Tracey and Phil May). According to their website's description: "A joint RV rally presented by Geeks on Tour and TechnoRV. Spend some time learning about your camera, computer, tablets and lots of other technology to enhance your RVing lifestyle." We've attended several of the "Geeks" classes at other RV rallies throughout the years and I'm sure we will both take away many useful things and ideas from the classes.

 Karen is attending the two-day classes on Smartphones use. I decided to forego this, but both of us will attend the remainder of the seminar beginning on Tuesday.

 Karen was very impressed at the end of the first day and learned several useful tidbits of information. This class was kept small by design to enable greater interaction between the students and Jim and Chris.

This gentleman was using a flip phone and taking the class primarily to decide which Smartphone he would like to purchase.  Because of this he fashioned a "dunce cap" for his not-so-smart phone.




 While Karen was in class, the weather outside was pretty bad today. We had severe thunderstorms and several warnings for tornadoes in nearby counties. As they say in Florida, however, if you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes, and it'll all pass over. It did!

View of engine from above. Coalescing filter
is under the cover indicated by the box.

Since the weather was nasty outside it gave me a chance to perform a bit of maintenance on the engine of our MH which I had put off for awhile. I'm a big follower of the Tiffin RV Network  (TRVN) forum and have learned a great deal about our coach and its' maintenance from folks on that forum. A few months ago the subject of changing the coalescing filter on our Cummins ISC engine came up. I had read about this maintenance in the Cummins required maintenance list, but didn't have a clue what a coalescing filter was, much less how to change it. As it turns out, Cummins indicates that it should be changed every 60,000 miles or 24 months (whichever comes first). We have now had the rig for 36 months and I was fairly certain that this had never been done.

Remove bolts with a 5/16" socket

Place the coalescing filter in place and
re-bolt the cover.

 After a bit of reading on the Forum I located the proper part number for my engine and placed an order thru Filterbarn.com. I've used them to buy most of my filters and their prices are very good. The coalescing filter is located on the top of the engine under a metal cover. The installation is very easy, but requires that the engine cover (on the bedroom floor in our rig) needs to first be removed. I won't go into that here, but suffice it to say that if you've never removed the floor engine hatch cover before that it will take you as long to do this as it will to change the coalescing filter.

I did a complete "how to" with pictures on this maintenance item and placed it on the TRVN under this thread, but a login to the forum will be required first for those who are not members. It is a very useful forum for anyone interested in the workings of their MH (and associated components) whether you own a Tiffin product or not.  The website is administered COMPLETELY by Tiffin owners and has no connection to the Tiffin Motorhome Company.  Ok, that's my pitch for TRVN for today.

Last night we also found out AGAIN that apparently all campgrounds are required to be positioned near railroad tracks. Because we have a road crossing about 300 yards from the back of our rig, train horns were heard several times thru the night.

 Thanks for taking a look!

A Bit of Maintenance (Changing the Water Heater Anode Rod)

Montgomery, AL

To be very honest we haven't done much since arriving here on Saturday.  Decided to wake up late and take it easy for a few days.

Maintenance is always important, but even more so now that our rig is our home. Yesterday I decided to check out the condition of the anode rod in our water heater.  We have a Suburban water heater and these have either magnesium or aluminum rods.  The purpose of an anode rod is to act as a sacrificial metal to protect the tank.  Depending upon the type and quantity of minerals in your water, the anode may have a longer or shorter life.  That's the main reason for removing it for inspection.  Suburban states that these anodes should last approximately one year, but again that is dependent upon the water run through the unit.  This is a pretty easy maintenance item, but for anyone who has not done this before here's the basic procedure: (Please note that these instructions apply to the Suburban water heater only, and all work is done at the owner's risk.)

1. Turn off the electric and propane switches to the water heater.
2. Turn off the water supply and/or water pump.
3. Allow the water in the heater to cool for a period of time before draining.

4. Open the pressure relief valve.
5. Use a 1 1/16" socket to remove the anode rod and drain the tank.  (Stand clear of the opening as the water might still be hot and WILL exit quite forcibly.)

6. Examine the condition of the anode rod.  Suburban recommends replacement when 75% of the original anode has been used up.

  My rod was far less than this, but since I had used an aluminum rod last year I was concerned that the aluminum rod was not "sacrificing" itself enough.  I went with the magnesium rod this time in an attempt to get more sacrificial use out of the rod.

7. I use a long plastic piece of pre-made tubing with a water shut off to rinse out the deposits in the bottom of the tank.  (The deposits will look like white pieces of calcium and will probably resemble soft bath soap.)
8. After the tank has been thoroughly rinsed, wrap the threads of the new anode rod several times with teflon tape and screw the rod back into the drain hole.  Make sure the rod is tight, but DO NOT over tighten.
9. Turn on the water supply.
10. Close the pressure relief valve when water begins to exit from the valve. (This ensures that the tank is filled with water and that an air space has been created in the tank.)
11. Make sure the tank is filled again BEFORE turning on the electricity to the water heater or you run the risk of burning out the electric element inside the water heater.
12. Turn on the propane switch again to make sure that all is working properly.
13. Check the anode for leaks around the threads and tighten JUST A LITTLE if needed.

That's it!

Tomorrow I take a look at LED lights and dealing with the USPS for mail delivery.


Thanks for taking a look!