Securing dump handles...

[CADman_KS]

Went to pull one of our gray water handles yesterday, and the handle is missing!

What in the world?, I thought to myself, until I realized that they are just screwed on from the outside, and the screw had come out. Well, I was able to unscrew the one next to it, since it was about ready to fall out, and use it to do the job. Checked the other one, and it was about ready to fall out too!!

When the new handle gets here, only $6, I plan on putting some LocTite on there to prevent this from happening again. I think that's about the only option, since this is a blind hole with a screw, but it's an easy fix...

Moral of the story: Check your valve handles to make sure that they are not about ready to fall off, and at a minimum, tighten the screws!

:RANTON:

KEYSTONE, if you're listening: HOW HARD WOULD IT BE TO A DROP OF LOCKTITE ON THERE SO THAT THE HANDLES DON'T FALL OFF??

A bottle of Loctite is like $30. One bottle does AT LEAST 1000 valves, so, 3 valves per unit = 333 units/bottle. That equates to a measly $.09 / unit.

There is no excuse for bad quality, NONE, but things like this are EASY to fix, and it makes your quality look a whole lot better, albeit a small thing.

SMH...

:RANTOFF:

[Dave W]

Mine, Valterra both OE and replacement, had and still have a star lock washer and nut locking the handle on

[CADman_KS]

Originally Posted by Dave W

Mine, Valterra both OE and replacement, had and still have a star lock washer and nut locking the handle on

Good point, and I didn't make that clear in my original post.

We have remote mounted valves, so there is a cable coming from the valve. That cable has a female thread on the end of it, and the handle screws into that. So, there is no way to put a nut on there to secure them to the cable.

I don't think it's a necessarily a bad design on the cable, and it's easily fixed by dropping some LocTite on the there to keep the screw from backing out.

After typing this, I realized that there may actually be an even better way to fix this. I'll work on that, and report back if it works...

[L0veless]

if you do go the way of Loc-tite I would recommend using blue just in case you need to remove later on, and don't have a heat source.

[CADman_KS]

Originally Posted by L0veless

if you do go the way of Loc-tite I would recommend using blue just in case you need to remove later on, and don't have a heat source.

Yes, I didn't mention that in my first post, but that would be LocTite 242, which is removable...

[Theunz]

My black and main grey valves are in the convenience bay, so if a handle were to fall off it wouldn’t be lost. My galley tank is exposed to the outside however, and therefore subject to being lost. A simple homemade cable solves that problem.

[CADman_KS]

Originally Posted by Theunz

My black and main grey valves are in the convenience bay, so if a handle were to fall off it wouldn’t be lost. My galley tank is exposed to the outside however, and therefore subject to being lost. A simple homemade cable solves that problem.

This is a GREAT idea, but in the case of the externally mounted valve pulls this would only save the handle. You still wouldn't be able to pull the valve, because you'd be missing the screw that holds the handle onto the remote cable. At least that screw is a readily available 8-32 x .5", but you still would be hosed until you got a screw, or use a pliers to actuate the valve.

Originally Posted by CADman_KS

...

After typing this, I realized that there may actually be an even better way to fix this. I'll work on that, and report back if it works...

I said in one of my posts that I had another idea. After looking it over, the idea that I had would not work, so I just finally resorted to using some LocTite (243) to hold the screw in there.

At any rate, if you have remote valves, that are cable operated, check to make sure that the screws are at least tight BEFORE you lose the handles like we did...

[Lethbridge Sparky]

Just be forewarned. I found out that locktight doesn’t work with all plastics. It can cause the plastic to become weak and break.