Galley Valve handle breaking

[hamcamper]

I had the galley valve handle break off in my hand when I was going to pull it to empty the tank. It was a clean break with no warning it was going to happen. To replace the handle I had to drop the under pan in that area and unscrew the remaining piece. When I did that I noticed that the remaining piece of rod wasn't aligned with the hole in the frame. The original handle rod was rubbing inside the hole and the hole edge caused the rod to fail at the rub point. To remedy this problem, I enlarged the hole to 5/8ths in diameter and installed a rubber grommet in the hole. I then installed the replacement rod. Time will tell if this will be a good fix but at least the rubbing will no longer a problem. I am keeping a close eye on the other two valve rods for the same wear pattern. Hope this will be a help to anyone else that might have this problem.

[ols1932]

Thanks hamcamper. I had the same problem with my galley valve rod way back in 2002 but I was able to make a repair without dropping the underbelly. I repaired mine by cutting the head off a sheet metal screw and screwing one end into the portion of the rod still attached and screwed the loose end onto the other end of the sheet metal screw (the rod is hollow). This has worked satisfactorily all this time. Maybe someday I'll have to do something else, but for now...